Hearts of Avengers
by lyokoMARVELanime
Summary: Instead of Traverse Town, Sora lands in New York after Destiny Islands fell and just moments before The Breakout happens. One superhero team-up later, and the Keyblade Hero is now a member of the Avengers. It's the story of Kingdom Hearts with a marvel of a new spin. Just see how Sora and the Avengers will affect both of their adventures, now.
1. Destiny Breakout

**_Hey every one of you writers, readers, reviewers, and all other manner of folks out there! You know it, you love it, and if you're thinking what we think you're thinking, then you're doing some good thinking! From the mind that's brought you many a MARVEL crossover such as A Spider's Focus, Avenging Normandy, and the Code Avengers Series, it's a new epic tale of heroes, magic, and more from the studio of lyokoMARVELanime! And now, give it up, for that one-of-a-kind, crossover crafting, legend building, miracle worker: heeeeeeerrrrreeeee's...lyokoMARVELanime!_**

 ** _[audience applause mixed in with some boos]_**

 _ **AN: Hi-ya everybody, and let me just say right now, you are well in your right to boo me right now, hence the reason why the audience is giving that reaction to the announcer dude. Let me explain: for those of you who have been following my other, more recently updated stories or who have spoken with me via PM, I'm sure you're well-aware by now of how I have said that I would not be accepting any new challenges or starting any new stories any time in the near future until my other current stories were completed, and I assure you, I was fully intent on following through with that promise. However, that was before I saw a challenge posted by "Spiderfan626", for a Kingdom Hearts & Avengers EMH crossover, and I just could not help but think to myself, "Hey, this is right up my alley!" I mean, I felt like it was begging me to do this, so I said, why not go for it, and immediately spoke with the challenge-giver to let him know I was taking him up on that. Now, here we are.**_

 _ **Sora: You know, I have to admit, it actually feels kind of exciting to be doing double-duty for you, seeing as you've now got this story in addition to Kingdom Hearts: Dual Keys. I mean, this is the first time I've ever been in two of your stories at once.**_

 _ **Wasp: It's actually not as easy as you think, Sora. It can get pretty hard at times.**_

 _ **Iron Man: Speak for yourself. Aside from Spidey, you and Cap are the ones who are featured as major/main characters the most of his stories. You know, like say Justice Marvel, Avenging Normandy, Shield of the Cosmic Era, Avengers Academy, and let's not forget about the Code Avengers Series.**_

 _ **Wasp: Um...Tony, I've only officially appeared in two of those stories. And before you argue about my appearance in Justice Marvel, I'd just like to remind you that said appearance was actually a guest appearance of the Code Avengers version of me. Not the Justice Marvel one.**_

 _ **Roxas: Just tell me that I'm going to actually show up in this story, because I'm getting a little impatient waiting for you to finish Dual Keys so you can start on its sequel.**_

 _ **Xion: Yeah, same here.**_

 ** _Namin_** _ **é**_ _ **: Yeah, that goes for a lot of the rest of us who only started appearing after Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories came out too.**_

 _ **AN: ...Really? Are you guys really going to go diva on me in the first chapter of a new story?**_

 _ **Roxas: I'm just saying...**_

 _ **AN: Just be patient. You'll get your chances to shine, both in the sequel to Dual Keys, and...in the sequel to this story.**_

 ** _Namin_** _ **é: You've already started thinking about a sequel for this?**_

 ** _AN: Well yeah, actually. The events of Avengers EMH Season 2 need to be a whole separate story from this for a multitude of reasons. That actually brings me to the other reason accepted the challenge for this kind of story. This is the first time I've done a Kingdom Hearts story that was an actual crossover, or just a major AU of the original story to this extent, and I'm kinda hoping this could act as my sounding board for future, similar stories. I have actually thought of a couple different Kingdom Hearts AUs that had a kind of High School setting to them, but I've never really pushed forward with them yet for many reasons, the first of which being that I was nervous about how well I could pull it off. So please, when you're reviewing, let me know what you guys think about how good, bad, cool, sad, or whatever else my efforts are. I'd really appreciate the feedback this time._**

 ** _Now, with all of that settled (and now that I've said everything I can to hopefully quell any hate flames), let's get into things right away. Oh, before I forget, this is actually an alternate version of the first game, so this will be at the time when Sora first got the Keyblade. And I'm going to be skipping over the events of Destiny Islands, because that all happened the same way in cannon. Avengers, to the chapter!..._**

 _ **I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter I**

It was supposed to be the greatest thing that had ever happened for him and his best friends. They were supposed to just go to bed, rest up, and then set sail the next morning so that they could find the other worlds, one of which being the home of the lone girl of their trio of best friends. Finally, after all the years of just sitting around on the islands of their small world, just pretending to go on grand quests, the three of them would be having a real adventure, just like they had always dreamed of doing ever since they had come together as friends. So how, on the eve of their voyage, did it all go so wrong, right to the point where their dream of adventure had been completely turned around into a nightmare?

Young Sora was not quite sure what had happened. One minute he was in his bed having a hard time getting to sleep both because he was so excited for what was coming the next day and because of some things his friend and "secret" crush Kairi had talked to him about earlier that day before they left for home. The next minute, a storm seemed to have rolled in, and he was heading out the window and over to the island that he and his friends would always play on to make sure that the raft they had worked so hard on was not harmed by the storm. At least, Sora thought it was a storm, until he had arrived on the island and looked up at the sky to see what looked like a giant orb of shadows hanging directly above the island. He paid it little mind though when he noticed that both Kairi and his other best friend, Riku's boats were at the dock as well, and his friends quickly became a higher priority for him. He barely paid that much attention to the strange, shadowy creatures that suddenly rose up from the ground around him, aside from running away from them, and he did not stop running until he located each of his friends, only to lose them again due to mysterious circumstances seconds later. What happened next was so hard to believe that Sora was sure that you would have to have been there to believe it, because he ended up fighting a giant monster that appeared to be made of shadows on what could only be described as the ruins of his home, which were now floating high up in the air while everything around him was drawn into the slowly growing, dark orb. The only thing stranger than the monster and the location of his battle, was the weapon he had to use against the beast.

He had no idea where it had come from or how he got it, but Sora was just glad that, unlike his toy sword made of wood, this mysterious sword was able to destroy the dark creatures easily. He still had little to no idea as to why it was shaped like a giant skeleton key with a gold guard, silver blade and teeth, and black handle though. The teeth of the key-sword were shaped like the crown symbol that Sora wore around his neck, making Sora even more confused as to just what kind of sword this thing was to begin with. That mystery was just a minor thing for Sora at the time, because just when it seemed like he was going to be able to deal with the monster that was apparently destroying his home, he got pulled up into the dark orb as well, and promptly passed out seconds after going through and landing on what felt like cold steal.

Sora could faintly remember hearing muffled voices afterwards, but he barely had any idea what they were saying. He was sure that he heard mention of a doctor and a director or something along those lines, but that was about it before he saw what he could only assume was a pair of women, one with short, black hair and the other with long, red hair just before he had passed out. That was probably a few hours ago, and now Sora was awake again, slowly taking in his surroundings. From what he could tell, he was resting on a bed in a dull-looking room that had no windows or lights save for the ones in the ceiling above him, and he could swear he heard what sounded like a muffled, roaring engine coming through the walls, so he quickly assumed that he was probably on some kind of ship at the moment. Even though the room was as bland and dull as could be, it was still a much better sight than he was at the moment. Physically, Sora himself was fine for the most part, save for a few scratches, but his outfit was most certainly ruined. His red jumpsuit had more than a few tears in it, while his black hoodie was missing one of its white sleeves and the actual hood. One of his white gloves was also missing two of its straps, but both of them were seriously frayed, and his rather large, yellow and black shoes were so banged up that Sora was honestly surprised that they were not falling apart at the seams. He was honestly surprised that his loosely worn blue belt and crown necklace had come out of the entire thing unscathed, but that was a small comfort when faced with the reality that he was now alone with no idea as to where his friends were or even where he was at the moment.

His answer was coming soon enough, right after he realized he was not the only person in the room. "Good to see you're finally awake," a female voice commented, drawing Sora's attention over to the speaker.

When his eyes came to rest on the woman in question, the first thing he registered was that she had red hair, and since his vision was still a little hazy, he could have sworn that the girl before him was someone he knew quite well. "Kairi? Is that you," Sora questioned.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid you've got me confused with someone else. My name's Natasha Romanoff, codename: Black Widow," the redhead replied. It was at that point that Sora's vision finally cleared up, and in place of the girl he had long since developed a crush on, stood a woman with long red hair, sharp green eyes, and fair skin, dressed in an all black suit that hugged every curve of her body, while the collar was opened a little at her neckline, along with a pair of gold bracelets on her wrists, and a studded, yellow belt that had a red and black hourglass symbol on the center of belt buckle. "I have to admit, I never thought I'd get the chance to meet a Keyblade wielder, let alone that said wielder would be so young," Black Widow continued. "Still, I can't help but wonder just how experienced you really are."

"Keyblade," Sora questioned as he finally sat up, slowing his pace a little when he was suddenly hit by a little dizziness due to rising too quickly. He then noticed the key-shaped sword he had been using earlier resting against the wall nearby, and in a flash of light, the blade had vanished from where it was and reappeared in his hand. "I'm guessing this is the Keyblade?"

"You mean…you didn't already know that," Black Widow questioned, her surprise barely evident at all, given how even and controlled her voice and facial expression was.

Sora shook his head no, drawing a sigh from the redhead in response. He was about to ask if she knew anything else about this thing when he suddenly remembered something a little more important. "Wait a minute! What happened to my island? My friends?! Riku? Kairi," Sora rapidly fired off.

"Calm down, kid. We're not going to be able to answer any of your questions if you're asking so many of them at once," a new voice interrupted, diverting Sora and Black Widow's gaze to the room's third occupant that Sora had not noticed until just now. The man in question had dark skin, black hair that was grey on the sides, and a brown, right eye, while his left eye was hidden behind a black eyepatch. His outfit was much different from Black Widow's, since it was a dark blue-nearly black full body suit that left only his head uncovered, while a white gun holster was strapped over his chest, a white belt circled his waist, and white gloves covered his hands. His outfit was completed with a pair of black boots and a red circle on his chest that had an eagle on the inside, clearly acting as a badge to signify the organization he was part of, though from his posture and stern expression, it was a little more likely that he was probably someone of high authority in said organization. "I'll take it from here, Romanoff. You're dismissed for now," the eyepatch wearing man told the redhead, and the woman in question silently left a minute later, her stride even yet attractive at the same time when she did.

With Widow out of the room, the two men fell into a tense silence as they stared each other down for a minute, until finally, the man of authority took a seat in the chair by the wall and gave a small smile to Sora as he said, "It's been a few years since I last saw a wielder of the Keyblade, but given how young you are, and how you seem to have no clue about just what that means, I'm going to assume that you're either just starting your training, or you just got that key of yours. Not only that, but I'm guessing that you probably didn't come here willingly, given how you appeared on the upper deck of my Helicarrier earlier today."

"So this really is another world," Sora asked.

"Yes, it is, or at least I'm assuming it's another world in relation to where you come from. Now before you go demanding anymore answers, I'm going to need to ask a few questions of my own. I suggest you answer them all honestly. Is that understood, kid," the man informed him. The question at the end was clearly more of a statement that it was anything else.

When Sora would have just nodded in reply, even if he was a little irritated at being called "kid" but he still wanted to know something else first. "First, tell me who you are."

The man stared at Sora for a minute or so before he finally smirked in reply. "My name is Nick Fury. I'm the director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Espionage and Logistic Division. We call it SHIELD for short. Now perhaps you could tell me your name, kid?"

"It's Sora, and I'm not a kid. I'm fourteen."

"I'd hate to break it to you, Sora, but until you've really been through half the things that I and some of my best agents have been through, or even half the stuff some of the Keyblade wielders before you have been through, you're still a kid in the eyes of a lot of people," Fury chuckled. He then became serious again as he started his questions. "Now first off, I have to ask, do you know anyone by the name of Aqua?"

"Uh…No, I don't think so," Sora shrugged, but he then found himself pausing to think for a minute before adding on to his answer. "But I do feel like…that name should sound familiar to me for some reason. Why do you ask?"

"That's the name of a Keyblade Master I met personally. I would've lost a lot more than my left eye if it were not for her," Fury explained before he returned to his questions. "I'm guessing this means you don't know anyone named Terra or Ventus either, do you?" When Sora shook his head in the negative, Fury moved on from that topic to the next obvious one. "Where are you from?"

"I'm from Destiny Islands," Sora answered, honestly. "It's a pretty small world, actually, and that's part of the reason why my best friends and I wanted to go out and find other worlds."

"I see," Fury nodded with a small smile, finding that honesty both relieving and a little amusing. Being caught up in spy work day-in and day-out hardly ever meant you would encounter someone as honest as this kid seemed to be. "Now, what's the last thing that you remember before you came here?"

Sora was about to answer Fury's question, and likely would have done so in excruciating detail, when suddenly the lights in the room flickered on and off a few times, pulling them out of the conversation. Even though he was not from this world, Sora knew that this most likely meant something really bad was about to happen, and Fury's quickly forming scowl only reinforced that point. The next thing either of them knew, the room suddenly felt like it was sinking at a rapid pace while violently shaking as faint explosions could be heard from outside and an alarm began blaring loudly. When the shaking finally settled enough, Fury turned to rush out of the room, and Sora was about to follow him when the dark skinned man turned back to him with a wave of his hand and ordered, "You stay here, and don't leave this room unless absolutely necessary!"

Fury was out the door before Sora could protest, and the boy was probably going to just plop down on the bed he had woken up in with a pout on his face had something else not just materialized onto it before he even got close. It may not have been the same thing as the monsters that had appeared on his island before whatever had happened to his home, but somehow, Sora just knew that this oddly-armored, yellow-eyed creature was the same kind of monster as the ones from back then. At first he thought it was probably not going to hurt him, since it shared a resemblance to that of a knight, but when it suddenly lunged towards him, clearly intent on attacking, Sora knew that was not the case, so he rolled away and slashed through it with the Keyblade, reducing it into nothing more than faint smoke when he struck, while a strange, heart-shaped crystal seemed to be released into the air afterwards before it too vanished. Sora did not pay that much mind, because he had a feeling that if one of those strange creatures was here, then that meant that there were probably others as well, and as far as he knew, nothing other than his Keyblade was able to destroy them. Fury may have told him to stay put, but he also said to only leave the room if it was necessary. As far as Sora was concerned, helping to take out those monsters was definitely necessary. Besides, he still had a score to settle with these things for what they did to his home.

The young Keyblade wielder would have gotten right to work had it not been for one small problem: it turned out that Fury had locked him in. Sora could not help but bite back a curse when he realized this, until he glanced at the Keyblade, pausing to think when he did. The idea may have been a little bit odd, but then again, everything about the last few hours or so had been strange, so it was not like he had much to lose at this point. After stepping back from the door, he aimed the Keyblade directly at it, and then watched as the tip of the blade glowed before shooting a beam of light directly at it. A moment later, he heard what sounded like something being unlocked, and when he approached the door this time, it opened without any trouble at all. Sora smiled in relief of this and then raced out into the hallway so he could find anymore of those strange monsters, hoping that no one had been hurt by them yet. What he found so far instead was a bunch of different men and women dressed similarly to Fury, firing at strange…people for lack of a better word.

There was really no better way for Sora to describe the other guys that he saw, because they were all strange and different in more ways than he could count as far as he could see. There was one man dressed in green armor that suddenly turned into a tornado, a man who looked like he was made of stone that was turning other people into a similar state just by touching them, and just a few feet away from him, he could see what looked like man mixed together with a lion and a bird charging through some of the uniformed men who were firing at him. One managed to avoid being hit by the animal-like individual, but he was soon wound up in a long cable of some kind and hauled over to a man in a blue and orange outfit as said man chuckled darkly. Seeing the man in trouble, Sora was about to rush over and stop him, when someone else beat him to it by blasting the man in the head and the stomach.

Turning to the shooter, Sora only gained a brief glimpse at a tan woman with short, black hair and dressed in a similar uniform as Fury's rushing past while something small seemed to be flying alongside her, and Sora could have sworn the small object had looked like a person. The two were soon stopped in their tracks when more of the knight-looking monsters suddenly appeared in their path, and the small person quickly started firing energy blasts at the monsters in an attempt to get rid of them. Even though the energy blasts seemed to have more of an effect than Sora's toy sword had on the first ones he had encountered on his island, it did not seem to slow them down, because they were charging the two women again shortly after. Thankfully, that was when Sora jumped in, slashing through a soldier than had jumped at the two just as it was coming down on them, and he was quick to cut down the remaining three soon after, clearing the hallway of these monsters for the moment.

Sora then relaxed his battle stance after glancing around to confirm that there were not anymore monsters around and turned to the woman and her small friend, only to find the latter was now right in his face with her fists ablaze with yellow energy. It was at this point that Sora was finally able to get a good look at the small person, and he could now clearly see that it was indeed a small woman, probably about six inches tall at least, with fair skin, bright blue eyes, and dark brown hair. More than that, she also had a pair of yellow buzzing, insect wings protruding from her back, and was dressed in a yellow and black stripped dress that left her shoulders bare, with a black choker around her neck, black sleeves, yellow gloves, black pants, and yellow boots, with a pair of yellow antenna that were worn over her ears completing the outfit. Sora had to admit, whoever this small woman was, she did look pretty cute, but that was little distraction to the fact that she was glaring at him with her fists charged with energy like she was ready to shoot at him at any second.

"All right tough guy, I don't know who you are, but you better just give up quietly before I zap the heck out of you," the small woman warned Sora, who's only response was to raise a questioning eyebrow at her.

"But I just helped save you guys. Why should I surrender if we're on the same side," Sora asked.

"Easy Wasp. He's not one of the supervillains," the other woman told the small-sized one. Hearing her say that, Wasp lowered her glowing hands, letting the light from them go out when she did, but now it was the other woman's turn to glare at Sora, or at least, that was what it seemed like she was doing to him, but he figured that she was probably just giving him what counted as a neutral look for her. "Still, last I checked, you were unconscious and under observation. What're you doing out of your quarters?"

"Well I was going to do what Nick Fury told me to and stay there, but then one of those monsters appeared in my room and tried to attack me. I figured that there might be more of them, so I came out to try and help you guys beat them, since so far, the only thing that I've seen able to destroy those monsters was this Keyblade," Sora explained, gesturing to the weapon in question at the end.

The serious woman looked at Sora for a minute before she asked, "How are you so sure that only your weapon can destroy them? From what I saw, Wasp's stingers seemed to have been doing something against them."

"Because those are a lot like the monsters that appeared on my island before I ended up here, and when I tried to fight them with something else, it didn't work. Then I got the Keyblade and suddenly I was able to take them out with one hit," Sora rapidly explained.

Wasp was just looking back and forth between the two for a minute before she finally stepped back in and said, "Well, he did try and help us, so, I think we can trust him." She then glanced around again as the ship shook for some reason and exclaimed, "This is now completely crazy! How did this happen?"

"It doesn't matter. Right now, we need to get to the bridge," the uniformed woman told Wasp before moving to run towards said location.

"No," Wasp snapped, turning her glare on the other black haired woman. "Ant-Man was in the Big House when the explosion happened. He was with all the supervillains. We have to help him, now!"

"We don't have time to help him if we want to get things under control, and to do that, we've got to get to the bridge."

"You can't be serious, Hill!"

"So this Ant-Man guy is a friend of yours, right Wasp," Sora suddenly asked, reminding the two that he was still there. When Wasp nodded to him, Sora smiled a bit and said, "Well in that case, I'll go with you to help him while Miss Hill goes to the bridge."

"Agent Hill," the uniformed woman corrected.

"Sorry," Sora quickly apologized before turning back to Wasp. "Besides, if there's a bunch of bad guys down in this Big House, then there might be more of those monsters there too, so I have to come with you and help out."

Wasp just stared at the kid for a minute until finally, a grateful smile crossed her face and she nodded. "Thanks kid."

"My name's not 'Kid.' It's Sora."

"Well it's going to be 'Water-Rat' in a minute if you two don't get moving soon. In case you forgot, the Helicarrier is probably sinking into the Hudson right now, and there are supervillains running all over the place," Hill informed him, and with that, she raced off for the bridge again.

Wasp just rolled her eyes at the agent before looking to her new friend and waving for him to follow after her. Sora was instantly hot on her trail after that, running as fast as he could, both to keep up with Wasp and to make sure that nothing happened, and for the most part of their trip, they did not encounter anymore monsters or bad guys. That good fortune ended eventually though when they came across a few more of the same monsters from earlier, only this time, there were some of the ones that looked like living shadows with beady yellow eyes and long antenna that Sora had fought back on his island as well. Sora wasted no time in destroying as many of them as he could, and during that time, Wasp proved that her stingers were able to destroy some of the creatures as well, but only after several consecutive blasts. When they finally made it through, Wasp and Sora could only gasp in shock at the sight of what looked like the ruins of a large building filling up the room, some parts of it even going up through the ceiling and the floor beneath their feet. This may have looked odd to Sora, but for Wasp, it was definitely a bad sign.

When Wasp spotted a flash of light from of the windows, she immediately flew towards it, hoping that it was Ant-Man using his powers in order to avoid getting hurt right now. Leaving Sora to try and climb through it as best as he could. He just had to hope he managed to catch up to Wasp before something happened to her or her friend.

* * *

Things seemed to only go bad for Hank Pym lately. First a peaceful trip out to the borders of Wakanda to study vibranium turned into a fight for his life when a mercenary named Klaw attacked him with a sonic weapon, then there was that attack that happened near Greyburn that lead Janet to start going on about how they could do more to help as actual superheroes again, and of course, there was also the issues he had regarding the Big House and the prisoners inside of it, which Fury just brushed off by basically telling him that he was living in a fantasy land when he could be doing more good as a super powered soldier. Granted, seeing Janet take down Whirlwind so easily, despite her lack of training was pretty awesome, but all he wanted was to help people, be they good guys or bad guys. Others may think he was crazy for thinking like that, and part of him had to admit that he probably was, but he just had to believe that these criminals could be a beneficial part of society if they received proper rehabilitation. At the moment though, his current patients were making it very hard for him to prove that point.

He had no idea what had happened, or even how it was possible. One minute he was having a talk with the Mad Thinker, and the next thing he knew, the power to all the cell doors had been cut off, letting the prisoners loose, and the Big House was going from being at a size that was comparable to a model of specialized prisons, to a full-sized building, and when you consider the fact that it was onboard the Helicarrier…well, suddenly having a building just materialize in the middle of SHIELD's flying headquarters was not typically a good thing. He was just glad that the Helicarrier was not flying above a heavily populated area at the moment, last he checked, but that relief was soon replaced by annoyance when he found himself battling it out with his patients in a fight for his own survival. So far he had to endure escaping and knocking out Mandrill and King Cobra, getting tackled by Griffin, and now, he was enduring a beating from Whirlwind. That last one would probably have been less painful if he did not have to endure listening to Whirlwind rant on and on about what he was going to do to him and the other SHIELD agents for sending him into the Big House, though, but it also served as a good reason for Hank to at least try fighting back a little more when the tornado creating villain got to a very specific point in his rant.

"And then, I'm gonna find the bug girl and tear her apart," Whirlwind boasted, not knowing he had just crossed a very serious line with Hank. Nobody and I do mean _nobody_ threatened Janet in front of Hank without paying a serious price for it, and Hank most likely would have delivered that particular justice personally by beating Whirlwind to an inch of his life had he not spotted something that would have dealt with Whirlwind for him just before he was lifted up by the front of his suit.

"I'd let you tell the Wasp yourself, but you're about to get knocked out," Ant-Man snarled at Whirlwind, and he then shrunk down to a smaller size, escaping from Whirlwind's grasp, and leaving him wide open for when Griffon came flying towards him in an attempt to attack the size-changing hero as well, taking out both villains at once.

Hank likely would have dropped very far down to some unknown point of the Helicarrier, after all, when you are barely more than a few inches tall, you would often feel like you have entered a whole other world, when his angel swooped in and caught before he could even hit the water below him. "So how's your day been," Wasp asked as she carried Hank out of the ruins of the Big House.

"Painful and I don't think it's over yet," Hank groaned in reply as they got out into the hallway. Neither of them were prepared for when an odd creature that seemed to be made of shadows suddenly sprang up from the ground the minute they got out and lunged at them, but thankfully, they received another rescue, this time in the form of a boy with brown spiky hair, dressed in an odd tattered outfit, wielding what looked like a giant skeleton key as a sword.

The boy quickly sliced through a couple more similar monsters before returning his attention to the two small-sized heroes and asked, "You guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're good," Wasp nodded to him, drawing a confused look from Hank.

"Friend of yours, Janet," Hank asked.

"Oh yeah," Wasp gasped, as if she had just remembered that the two boys did not know each other. "Sora, this is Ant-Man. Ant-Man, Sora."

"Hi, nice to meet ya," Sora smiled to Hank, throwing the man off a little.

"Uh…likewise," Hank nodded before he remembered what had just happened. "What was that thing just now and what did you do to it?"

"I was hoping one of you guys could tell me, because I've never seen those things before until just recently when they showed up on my island. As for what I did to it…well, I'm pretty sure that I destroyed it," Sora shrugged.

Hank would have said something in protest against destroying what could likely have been a new life-form, but Janet was not about to let them forget about their current problem. "Uh guys, maybe we should continue this conversation after we get off the sinking Helicarrier?"

Both of the other two nodded in agreement, and immediately started booking it for the exit along with Wasp. Well, Hank was right alongside her in rushing for the exit. Sora was following close behind him since he had no idea where the exit even was. Thankfully, they were able to find one that was not completely flooded with either water or agents that were trying to evacuate, and Wasp had soon flown both Hank and Sora to safety on the docks nearby. They were all about to breathe sighs of relief now that they were out of that mess, but when they heard the sounds of something big rising out of the water, they could not help but start worrying again. That worry only grew when they turned towards the source of the sound and gaped at the sight of a massive facility that looked like it was attached to some type of barge had risen up out of the water and was now floating in mid-air, especially considering that it did not look like it should be able to do that.

The only thing that was more out of place than a flying building that should not be flying was the two men that were floating above it, or at least one of them did not seem like he should be flying from what the three could tell. They were able to confirm that at least one of the two people in the sky should not be up there after a few minutes when they realized that one of the two was actually a SHIELD agent, and it looked like the other man, who was clad in a blue and white outfit and had a shaggy mane of hair, was trying to crush him just by flexing his hand. Seeing that someone was in trouble, Wasp immediately charged up into the air again, hoping to help, leaving Hank and Sora to do nothing more than watch as thunder suddenly clapped through the air. A minute later, it looked like the shaggy man was hit by something hard, dropping his hostage, which was caught by Wasp seconds later. The shaggy man would have gone after Wasp and his now freed prisoner, but he was quickly held up by a blonde man in Viking armor after the hammer said blonde had thrown returned to his hand.

"Who's that," Sora gasped in awe when he saw the flying Viking.

"That's Thor," Ant-Man replied in a tone that made it sound like he was stating the obvious. Sora's only response was to look at him with a blank expression that was asking for more details. "You know, like as in the Norse god of thunder." Sora's expression remained unchanged. "He's been on the news a lot lately, like last week when he helped stop the Wrecking Crew from destroying at least half the city." Still no change. "Are you seriously telling me that you have no idea what I'm talking about right now?"

"Hey, give me a break. I literally just arrived in this world a little while ago. I can't be expected to know everything about everyone so quickly," Sora said in his defense.

Hank just looked at Sora like he was a crazy when he heard that, but just when he was about to call him out on that, Fury's voice suddenly called out, "I thought you Keyblade wielders were supposed to keep the existence of other worlds a secret in order to protect world order."

Looking in the direction that the SHIELD director's voice had come from, Hank and Sora discovered that the person Wasp had just saved was actually Nick Fury himself, and he was now leveling a small look at Sora while keeping an eye on Thor's fight with the unknown supervillain from the corner of his eye. "Didn't you get that memo at some point during your training, Sora?"

"I didn't even know what a Keyblade is or that I could use one until it just appeared in my hand out of nowhere while my islands were getting ripped apart by those monsters! How do you expect me to know about stuff like that," Sora protested, earning concerned looks from both Ant-Man and Wasp after the latter had came to stand next to the former.

Hank figured it was better to leave this strange conversation for later, because at the moment, there was something a little more important going on, and he had a strong feeling about who held a great deal of the responsibility for this whole thing. "Anything you'd like to tell us, Fury," Ant-Man demanded with an accusing tone, and he was not just referring to the strange conversation that the man was having with this mystery boy.

"Not really," was Fury's only reply before he turned away and tapped his ear piece. "SHIELD command, this is Director Nick Fury. I am declaring an omega-level emergency. Every SHIELD agent, every Hulkbuster unit, the U.S. Armed Forces, they are all now under my direct control."

"Wow, Nick Fury is actually worried," Wasp whispered in disbelief.

"I'm guessing that's a bad thing, right," Sora asked. He did not really know what Fury was talking about when he had contacted his allies, but he could understand enough to know that Fury had just placed a lot of really tough and important groups under his command like that.

Ant-Man only nodded to Sora before he looked directly at Fury again with a glare and asked, "Who is he?"

"The boys call him Graviton. I know him as Dr. Franklin Hall," Fury shortly replied.

"The physicist? No one's heard from him in years. Not since he joined SHIELD. What happened to him," Hank asked while retracting his Ant-Man helmet to reveal his concerned expression and light brown hair.

"That's classified," Fury half-snapped just before lightning lit up the sky behind him while thunder claps boomed loudly from where Thor and Hall were battling.

"I don't think that really applies anymore," Sora warily pointed out. He wished he could something to help out, because it was pretty obvious that Thor was struggling against Dr. Hall, while the empowered physicist was barely even breaking a sweat against the Thunderer. Despite that, Thor just kept on trying, even going so far as to charge his hammer with lightning before throwing it at Hall, but it did just about as much as Thor's other strikes had, and Sora was left feeling utterly helpless since he could not do anything but watch right now.

Apparently, his feeling of wanting to help was shared, because Wasp soon lost all patience from simply watching from the sidelines. "We have to do something," Wasp insisted. "If Thor can't stop him, he'll come into the city."

"Don't you think I know that, Wasp," Fury demanded.

Hank was about try and talk her down, but Wasp was not about to hear of it. "We're talking millions of people! I'm not going to let that happen!"

"Jan, wait," Hank called out, but Wasp was already flying off to try and help Thor. Hank then looked over to Sora and asked, "Can't you do something to help?"

"How many times do I have to say that I didn't even know I had powers until a little while ago before you guys get it," Sora asked, honestly feeling a little tired of having to remind people of this.

Fury was about to question the spiky haired teen on that, but the three were quickly distracted when they heard Hall yelling at Thor about how he could alter gravity's effect on anything before increasing it on the Thunderer and sending him hurtling down into the water, and it did not look like he was going to be coming back up again anytime soon. Hall then started to make a beeline for the shore where Fury and the other two were standing when he was stopped in his tracks again by Wasp, who only gave him one warning to give up before she started zapping him from all directions. It ended up being more irritating than anything to Hall, because he simply waved flexed his arms and sent Wasp flying down into the water, watching as she skipped across the water's surface like a skipping stone, much to Hank and Sora's concern. Fury was not quite as worried as the other two because he soon heard the distinctive sound of repulsor jets flying overhead, and turned just in time to see the gold and red armored form of Iron Man arriving on the scene. Sora eventually picked up on this sight as well, and it was just in time to see Iron Man slam into Hall and send him crashing into the bay with a quick blast from his repulsors, freeing Wasp from the gravitational hold he had on her.

The two then seemed to hover alongside one another for a minute, clearly having a quick chat before they suddenly dived down to fly along the water's surface in the direction of where Thor had been sent under, indicating that they were heading out to try and help. They never got the chance though, as Graviton resurfaced again and flew right into their path, and a minute later, Iron Man was sent hurtling upwards uncontrollably into the sky. That proved to be the final straw for Hank. "What are Graviton's upper limits," he asked Fury.

"We've studied him for years, and as far as we could tell, he doesn't have any," Fury replied. "What do you think you're going to do, Pym? Talk him down?"

"No, it's too late for that," Hank replied, and he then tapped the right side of his belt. The instant he did, he was lit up with an aura of blue energy that only grew brighter as he grew bigger, right to the point where his size was comparable to that of a sky-scraper.

When Sora saw this, his jaw instantly dropped open, and it stayed that way even as Hank stepped into the water and slowly moved out towards Graviton and Wasp, leaving him with Fury, who was now looking at him skeptically. "You're really not going to do anything to help," the SHIELD director asked in amazement.

"What do you want me to do, grow wings and fly out there," Sora asked.

"How about a little bit of that Keyblade wielder magic? Last I checked, you guys could cast a variety of spells," Fury rhetorically asked.

"What? I don't know any magic," Sora protested.

Fury could only stare at him in disbelief before he sighed and said, "The worlds must really be in trouble if they sent a wielder who was this much of a rookie here." He then looked to Sora again and asked, "Please tell me you at least know how to turn your Keyblade into a vehicle of some kind."

Sora was about to protest and remind Fury that he barely knew anything about being Keyblade wielder once again when he was suddenly hit with an odd headache. It felt as though something had suddenly snapped and was now trying to force its way into his head, and it must have been working because Sora was suddenly assaulted with a number of strange visions that ran rampant across his mind's eye. Some of them were of a beautiful woman with blue hair and eyes, others of a strong, tall man with brown hair and blue eyes, while others still seemed to be through his own eyes, and they were not since whenever he saw his reflection in those, he saw that he looked like a boy that was probably a year older than him and had blonde hair that was a bit less spiky than his own. It did not matter who appeared in these visions though, as they all showed each of these individuals summoning Keyblades of their own, each unique in their design, and then transforming the Keyblades into some form of flying vehicle. The blue-haired woman's taking the form of a two-part bow-and-platform device, the brown haired man's resembling a bike, and the blonde boy's becoming a winged waveboard.

Visions of seeing these three people form vehicles from their Keyblades continued to run through Sora's head, until he suddenly started to feel like he was gaining an understanding of what they were trying to tell him, along with a strange new feeling as well. When he finally opened his eyes again, it was right at the same moment when Fury had shoved him out of the way in order to help him avoid being flattened beneath Giant-Man due to Hank being thrown back by Graviton. Fury gave Sora a look that told him to stay down for a minute and then looked up at Graviton and shouted, "This is between us, Hall. Do whatever you want with me, but no one else has to get hurt."

"No, you wanted me to create a supersoldier, but I've become so much more," Hall boasted. "I'm beyond human now. I'm going to crush you and show the world their new master's power. Destroying the city will be a good demonstration. Goodbye, NICK FURY!"

A moment later, Fury was lifted into the air again, and the minute that Graviton had clenched his hand into a fist, the director of SHIELD was crushed by an intense gravity field. Instead of what one might expect when a human being was crushed in such a manner though, Fury actually ended up exploding in fire and metal, revealing that at some point, Fury had traded places with a robot duplicate, much to Graviton's irritation. It must not have been too big of a deal to Graviton though, because he was soon turning his attention to the city, and with a wave of his hands, he began lifting a large chunk of it up from the ground almost as though it was nothing. Now it was Sora's turn to get ticked off, and he knew what he had to do. So, he summoned his Keyblade, raised it up in front of him, and then closed his eyes, thinking about the feelings he had when he was watching those visions before. After another moment or so, he pulled his arm back, and swung it forward, tossing his Keyblade high into the air. A second later, he saw the Keyblade disappear in a flash of light, and then be replaced by a silver motorcycle with yellow highlights and a pair of extensions on the front that indicated it had some long-range firing power in it. When the vehicle swooped down next to him, Sora immediately jumped on and took off into the air towards Graviton as fast as the vehicle could take him. There was just one small problem with this idea.

"WHOA! How do you steer this thing," Sora shouted as he tried to control the bike that had been his weapon just a few seconds ago. His attempts to control the vehicle seemed to leave much to be desired, considering that it would either shoot forward or back at uncontrollable speeds, or just waver in the air as he tried to slowly move it in any direction for a few minutes, and looking at this, one would think that it would take weeks before he even had a basic handle on how to make it move right. Thankfully, Sora was able to figure out something in order to make it move in the direction he wanted it to go, and he immediately directed it straight at Graviton. The only problem was that he did not know how he was going to attack the man once he was close enough.

There was not going to be much time before Graviton took notice of his approach, so Sora figured that he should forget figuring out how his new bike's weapons worked and just hit him the only way that he could think of at the moment: by ramming right into the psychopath! By the time that Graviton had finally taken his eyes off what he was doing, it was already too late, because Sora had already slammed into him, turning so that one of the struts on the bike would hit the supervillain when he did. Sora smiled at seeing that his attack had worked, but his mood soon changed when he realized that he had forgotten about the fact that Graviton was the one who was currently holding up the airborne part of the city, which was already starting to drop back to the ground again. Before he could start panicking, he realized that the city was falling at a much slower pace than it should have been, and he immediately looked down to see Thor was holding it up as best as he could until the city had safely dropped back into place. A minute afterwards, Thor burst up from under the water again, showing that he did not get crushed beneath the city's weight, and drawing a relieved sigh from Sora when he saw the blonde.

The only problem was it looked like today was going to be full of jumps between relief and panic for Sora, because just as he thought everything was okay Graviton burst out from beneath a city street looking really mad. Sora would have flown right at Graviton again, but before he could, his bike suddenly vanished in a flash of light, becoming replaced by his Keyblade, which was currently in his right hand. Naturally, since Sora was currently several feet up in the air, the boy immediately started plummeting towards the ground, even as he flailed his arms about in a vain attempt to keep from falling, until something finally grabbed him by his jacket, and he turned to see Wasp had him in her grasp. Sora had to wonder how the small woman could even hold him up in the air at that size, but he disregarded it for the moment when he saw Graviton get slammed down into the street by Thor's hammer. After quickly exchanging a couple of nods with one another, the two were soon flying right towards Graviton so that they could help bring him down, knowing that Thor would not be able to stop him alone.

"I recommend you stay down, mortal," Thor growled at Graviton. He did not like being shoved down under water like he had been for so long. Graviton just laughed at Thor as he rose up into the air again, but before he could attempt to boast, Sora suddenly dropped down from the sky and hit the bearded man with his Keyblade as hard as he could, sending Graviton flying away from the Thunderer again, while Thor could only gape in shock at the sight of Sora's weapon. "Odin's beard! A Keyblade wielder," Thor whispered in awe.

Any questions Thor had about the boy were put on hold when he realized that Sora's landing had not been anywhere close to being graceful, though the sudden energy beam from somewhere above him, courtesy of Iron Man helped too. Thor was instantly next to Sora, helping the boy to his feet while the armored hero landed on the ground to stand above Graviton, and asked, "Are you all right, Keyblade Master?"

"Yeah, I think so," Sora groaned with a nod of thanks. He then moved to stand next to Iron Man along with Thor and warned the supervillain before them, "Unless you want to get hit again, I suggest you give up."

"You really should listen to the kid," Iron Man advised, though he was giving Sora an intrigued look from the corner of his eye.

Graviton was instantly up again, glaring at the three when a massive foot suddenly came crashing down behind him, and he turned to see Giant-Man standing above him as well. "You're sick, Franklin," Hank told him. "You need help."

"Or possibly more zapping," Wasp offered as an alternative as she flew in to stand alongside the others with stingers charged.

Graviton did not take any of the heroes' words well at all. "No, no, the power I wield…you are NOTHING COMPARED TO ME," he shouted, proving this by spreading his arms out and sending all five of his opponents crashing into one of the surrounding buildings with his gravity powers. "I'm stronger than all of you! I'M THE STRONGEST ONE THERE IS!"

The minute that last word had left his lips, something big landed on the building behind him, and Graviton instantly turned to see a large green giant in torn purple pants, who merely smirked at him as he growled, "You sure about that?"

Graviton did not get a chance to answer, because the green giant instantly lunged right at him, tackling him hard, and sending them both flying through the air until they were on the other side of the nearby bridge. With Graviton no longer in the area, the heroes were free to move again, and they were all immediately racing over to where Graviton and the green giant had gone off to, though some of them with a bit more difficulty or slower speed than others. Somehow, Iron Man and Thor were the first to arrive where the two had landed, which turned out to be a pier on the other side of the bridge, only to see that the two's fight had already brought out a great deal of destruction from destroyed shipping containers to massive craters in the ground and even a few toppled cranes, while Giant-Man, Wasp, and Sora arrived a few seconds later, the last of which had once again transformed his Keyblade into a bike after a couple of tries, and was now struggling to keep a steady flight in the air. Even though they had all gotten there so quickly, none of them had joined in right away. They were not sure if they would even be helping all that much given how the green guy was pummeling Graviton so hard. Besides that, some of them were a bit shocked at the sight of the former for different yet similar reasons.

"Is that the Hulk," Giant-Man gasped in shock.

"Isn't he supposed to be, you know, the bad guy," Wasp asked.

"But if he's a bad guy, how come he's helping us fight Graviton," Sora asked, honestly confused as to why they would think someone helping them was a bad guy.

No one was able to ponder the Hulk's reasoning for being there too long, because Graviton eventually found a break in the gamma giant's beat down of his person to halt him in his tracks. Iron Man took that as their cue to get back into the fight, and immediately shouted for everyone to charge in and attack, but it did little good, as Graviton was soon pinning them all down to the ground as well with but a simple wave of his hand. For some reason, Sora had managed to stay airborne a little longer, but like last time, his Keyblade suddenly returned to normal without him wanting it to, and he was forced down into the dirt with everyone else as well. "Look at you fools," Graviton mocked. "I possess the power of the universe itself! I AM POWER!"

As if to prove his point, Graviton allowed his powers to lash out and create a tornado of debris around him, and he kept gathering more and more items into his orbit, showing that he was planning to bury each every single one of the people opposing him beneath the objects in one fell swoop. Seeing this prompted everyone to try and at least stand up again, but no matter how much they struggled they could not even so much as lift up more than a finger, and even that was proving to be a challenge. At least, that was the case for most of them, because after a hard push or two, Hulk was back on his feet again and slowly moving towards Graviton, much to his irritation. In response to Hulk's attempt to fight back against his power, Graviton increased the gravity around the gamma giant again, pushing Hulk down to his knees once more. It did little good, because Hulk was standing up again a few minutes later. Graviton growled as he forced another wave of increased gravity down on the Hulk, but again, Hulk pulled himself up, defying all laws of physics that Hall knew of, much to his shock.

"Nothing is that powerful," Graviton protested, raising a hand so that he could focus on constantly increasing the gravity around Hulk, for what good it did. "I control gravity itself!"

Hulk just kept pushing and pulling against the overwhelming gravity well that was trying to force him down, and even from so far away, he could see that Hall was starting to sweat a little in order to keep him where he was. In the end, Hall finally brought an end to his tornado of debris, and directed every object that had gathered in his orbit down at Hulk, intending to bury him under its weight. Seeing that this was proving to be more successful than his previous plan, Hall could only grin until he felt something bite him in the back of his neck, causing him to lose focus. Since he was so focused on Hulk, he had failed to notice Giant-Man shrink down to Ant-Man and then call out to some nearby insects for help, and one such bug had just came through, providing the temporary lapse in focus that Hulk needed to finally break free and strike back on Graviton. Even after that first bug bite, Graviton was being forced to endure several more to his back, so he could not focus long enough to stop Hulk from leaping up and tackling him again, sending him flying across the pier and freeing the heroes from the gravity fields holding them down.

Hall was pinned down beneath Hulk for a few minutes before finally managed to throw up a gravity field that would keep him safe long enough to send Hulk flying up into the air. He figured that if he could not bury Hulk beneath the Earth, then he could hold him in the air long enough to smash him to a pulp, and with nothing to push his weight against, Hulk would not be able to resist at all. It probably would have worked if it were not for the fact that Iron Man came to the rescue with a repulsor barrage that made him lose whatever focus he had in keeping Hulk airborne. It did not stop the containers and boulders that he had thrown at Hulk from continuing on their path towards him, even as he dropped down, but Hulk did not let that stop him. He easily smashed and bashed aside whatever got too close to him, until Sora suddenly flew in front of him, switched out his bike for his Keyblade, this time intentionally, and then sliced through a container that would have hit them both in one fell swing, much to Hulk's surprise.

"You…you're helping me," Hulk whispered in surprise. For as long as he could remember, no one had ever done that before and he been convinced that no one would ever so much as try to do so for just as long.

"Well of course. You're helping us stop the bad guy, so why I shouldn't I help you out? Now let's get him," Sora replied with an easy-going grin.

Hulk just stared at Sora for minute before he smirked in reply and returned his attention to bashing, smashing, or leaping over crates on his way down to Graviton, with Sora slashing and spinning over all the rest as he descended towards the villain at nearly the same speed. Once they were finally close enough, they hit Graviton with all of their might, sending him back down onto the ground once again. Graviton soon retaliated by pushing them off with a tower of earth, but he could not do anymore than that, because Wasp soon came in to pelt him with another stinger barrage. She continued doing so until she saw Iron Man get into position above them, and she then raced aside so that she was not in the path of the unibeam blast that Iron Man fired at Graviton, this one packing possibly even more power than the last one. Even after Graviton managed to raise a slab of earth to defend himself from the constant stream of powerful repulsor energy, Iron Man did not let up, mostly because he needed to keep Hall busy long enough for Hank to finally get to where he needed to be.

He did not have to wait long, because it was just a few minutes after Graviton had raised his newest shield that Hank had turned into Giant-Man once again, grabbed an abandoned freighter, and tossed the sailing ship right at Graviton, crushing him beneath its explosive weight. Nearly all of Graviton's airborne objects came down to the ground after that hit, but the last of the heroes was not about to take any chances of letting Hall get back up again this time, as evidenced by the lightning storm that suddenly broke out above them. As he hovered in the air with lightning flashing around him and charging into his hammer, Thor eventually began to spin his blunt weapon above his head, and eventually shouted, "For MIDGARD!"

What followed next was an explosion of lightning unlike anything anyone had ever seen, and when it struck its target, a massive dust cloud was thrown up that blanketed the entire area for a few moments while Graviton's screams of pain seemed to echo all across the city. When the dust finally cleared, Graviton had finally fallen to his knees, covered in dirt, soot, and grim, barely able to even utter a word because of how much of a beating he had just suffered, and above him, standing triumphantly, were the six heroes who had just bested him in battle.

"Humph. Who's strongest now," Hulk huffed rhetorically with his arms crossed.

"Definitely not that guy," Sora joked as he shouldered his Keyblade with a grin.

"You had the power had the power to do anything, and you used it to put millions of lives at risk," Giant-Man scolded as he returned to his normal size.

"Pretty sad," Wasp finished, and she then fired a single stinger at Graviton, knocking him down onto his side, just to ensure that he would stay down this time.

The heroes just stared at Graviton after that for a few more minutes, just to make sure that they were not relaxing their guard prematurely, and when he did not get up again, Thor turned to his comrades and smiled brightly as he wrapped Iron Man, Hulk, Sora, and Hank in a tight hug and declared, "Come! Let us celebrate!"

At any other point in time, Sora would have eagerly agreed to any kind of party, but he had quite a few reasons for why he was not in the mood for one right now. First and foremost was the fact that he was tired from having to get into the middle of that fight after surviving whatever happened on the Helicarrier and the fate of his island. There was also the fact he knew nothing about this world in general, let alone who all of these strange people were aside from the names he heard each of them being addressed by, so he had no idea what to expect from a party around here, or with these people. More than that, he was starting to reach the end of his rope when it came to asking so many questions and not getting an answer for even one of them. Sure, he now knew that his sword was called a Keyblade and that it could, apparently, turn into a flying vehicle, but that still did not explain why a lot of people he's met here so far have freaked out about it now and assumed that he apparently knew magic for some reason. Plus, he also wanted to know what had happened to his home and friends, and if any of them were okay, then Sora felt that he had to go and find them, wherever they were. Of course, the fact that practically an entire army had just shown up and was now aiming all of their weapons at them was also killing any party vibes too.

"Step away from the Hulk! He's a fugitive from the Cube," a SHIELD agent ordered the heroes as others moved in closer with weapons ready.

Hulk just growled in response, ready to start smashing his way out until Iron Man suddenly stepped between him and the agents, and shouted, "You want the Hulk, you go through me."

"Yeah, and me too," Sora added, dropping into a battle stance once again. "The big guy here just helped save us all. He's a hero just like the rest of us, so why would you want to try to hurt or arrest him?"

Sora did not get any kind of answer from the agents, probably because some of them thought they would be wasting their time trying to explain it to some kid that they thought was clueless, but some of them did seem to waver in their stance a little when Ant-Man, Wasp, and Thor all moved to stand in between the agents and their big green target as well. Hulk on the other hand just glanced around in surprise. Sure, he might have figured that coming here and working with these guys would help others to see him as a hero, but he did not think that they would actually stand up for him like this when these guys came in ready to take him down again. More than that, one of them was just a kid, and yet he was not even the least bit afraid of him. Hulk was not sure what to make of this spiky haired boy with a giant key for a weapon, but he was starting to think that maybe he could like him. It did little to ease the tension that was hanging in the air though, at least until Fury suddenly made his presence known again and stepped to the front of the gathered agents with Agent Hill at his side.

"Stand down," Fury ordered. "We've got bigger problems than the Hulk. Seventy four supervillains are now on the loose all across the country, maybe the world by now. Not only that, but the monsters that appeared on the Helicarrier, they appeared at the Vault and the Cube as well, so there's a strong chance they're all out there as well."

"How did this happen, Fury," Iron Man demanded, having a very painful recollection of when he ran into the shadowy creatures at the Vault.

"I don't know, but we can find out together. Come work for me. As SHIELD agents you can make a real difference," Fury offered. He then looked to Sora and added, "More importantly, with SHIELD resources, you can get all the answers you're looking for in no time, Keyblade wielder."

Sora was tempted to take Fury up on that offer. If there was a chance that he could find his friends with SHIELD's help, then how could he refuse? Plus, Fury did seem to know a lot about his Keyblade, especially since the man admitted to meeting someone else with one a while back, so maybe he could help him figure out how to better use it. At least, that was what he was thinking until Ant-Man stepped forward with some very serious accusations. "No, this is your fault, isn't it? SHIELD created Graviton. Whatever you had Hall doing, it changed him. You kept it under wraps, and this happened."

When Fury said nothing in response, the six knew that Hank was right, and Sora took that as his cue to give his response to Fury's offer for him. "Sorry, but I'd rather figure this out on my own than work with someone who would do something like that. Besides, I've already gotten a few things figured out, so who's to say I can't figure out the rest on my own," Sora stated. He then paused for a minute to think before he added, "That being said, you are right."

"Wait, what? I thought you just said you weren't going to work for SHIELD," Wasp pointed out, now confused as to where Sora was going.

"I meant about how we made a difference all together," Sora explained. "We're all able to hold our own in a fight and take down a bad guy or two, but against seventy four? No one can stop something that big on their own. If we all work together, we have a better chance of stopping them all."

"The Keyblade kid's right," Iron Man agreed, surprising some of them that he knew about Sora's weapon. "What we did here, it can change things. The world needs us, but not as SHIELD agents. As a team on our own. Together we can avenge the wrongs caused by all these villains and those monsters."

"We can be avengers," Wasp exclaimed in excitement.

"Huh. Good name," Hulk nodded, and the other heroes were all soon nodding to show that they were in on this little escapade as well, though some more hesitant than others.

At this point, Iron Man finally turned to Sora and asked, "So, how's Ven doing these days?"

"Who," Sora asked.

"Ven…You know, Ventus? Blonde spiky hair, green shoulder armor, jacket that's white on one side and black on the other, carries a green star-shaped good luck charm…Any of this ringing a bell?"

"He doesn't know who that is, Stark, and I doubt he knows anyone by the name of Terra either, do you, Sora," Fury interrupted, stepping into the conversation again. When Sora shook his head in the negative, Fury sighed and said, "Well, if you won't join SHIELD, you guys should at least let me fill you in on what we know about those monsters."

"Are you saying that you were aware of the Heartless and did nothing to prepare for them," Thor questioned.

If Fury was surprised that Thor knew what those creatures were, he did not show it, and instead just replied, "We never had reason to believe they would ever come here. Until now, even I thought that they were either just as real as the boogeyman, or just didn't care about our world. That doesn't mean we don't have some intel on them. Besides, I'd like to hear the newest Keyblade wielder's story, myself."

Sora glanced around at the others, and from the looks on their faces, he could tell that they did in fact agree with Fury in that regard. Sure, they owed him some answers after everything that had just happened, but after working together with some of these guys, he did owe them a few details about himself as well. So, he simply nodded and said, "Okay, I'll tell you guys as much as I can tell you, but I want some answers of my own, and I'm getting tired of waiting for them."

"Fair enough," Fury agreed. "More importantly, I think we should move this conversation somewhere else. After all, it does involve a few topics that are supposed to be kept a secret if I remember correctly."

"We'll move this to Stark Tower then," Iron Man immediately offered. "It's as good a place as any, and besides that, I think the kid could do for a bit of cleaning up."

Looking down at himself, Sora could not say that Iron Man was wrong. If his outfit was messed up before, it was in even worse condition now, seeing as now both sleeves of his jacket were gone, his jumpsuit had a few new tears in it, and only one of his gloves had a single strap now. Add in the fact that he was covered from head to toe in dirt and grime, and you could understand why he would not be opposed to a quick shower right about now. Seeing all of this, Sora agreed with what Iron Man and Fury had suggested, and they were all soon heading off to Stark Tower, while Wasp promised Sora to get him a new outfit to replace his old one, personally. Even as he listened to Tony commenting on how he would make said outfit able to hold up better in a fight than his old one did, Sora could still not shake the feeling that his life was only going to get even crazier by the time the conversations at Stark Tower had ended.

* * *

 ** _AN: Hmm, I'll admit, this feels kind of long for a first chapter, but it just didn't feel right not having the events of the breakout all in one chapter like this. Oh, and yeah, the Heartless are going to be in this, no surprise, and look at that, we've already got a few changes being brought up: namely some encounters between the people of the MARVEL world and the heroes of Birth By Sleep. Plus, Sora's already learned how to summon his Keyblade Glider. For those of you who are thinking it's appearance sounds familiar, you would be correct. Sora's Keyblade Glider here is the same as the one he had in my first Kingdom Hearts story: Keyblades of Future Past. _**

**_Thor: Not entirely original, my friend._**

 ** _AN: I know, but I didn't really want to waste time thinking of a whole new design for the thing._**

 ** _Thor: Oh...yes, I suppose that is not original either, and I can understand your reasoning. I was actually referring to the title of the other story for the Hearts of the Kingdom._**

 ** _AN: Oh. Right, well, in my defense, it did originally start out as just a Kingdom Hearts version of the X-Men title by the same name, so...anyway, before anyone gets on me about giving Sora such an ability already, let me just point out that Sora doesn't exactly have the best control over the thing at the moment, as we saw in the story. Not only that, but realistically, it was the only thing I could do to give Sora a way of getting around quickly. I mean, Thor, Iron Man, and Wasp can fly, Hulk can jump really high and far to get anywhere fast, Ant-Man can just shrink down and ride on someone's shoulder or an ant, Hawkeye's got his Sky-Cycle, Cap has his motorcycle, and T'Challa...well, he's got his own cool ship for getting around and doesn't really need a cool vehicle to keep up because of his training to become the Black Panther. Since Sora has Ven's heart inside of him, I thought it would make sense that he would have a vision about how to summon a Keyblade Glider and get it like that, a lot more than having Sora just suddenly learn how to use something like Flowmotion from out of nowhere._**

 ** _Sora: Makes sense to me, even if Flowmotion is really cool. Hey, am I gonna learn how to do that sometime later on in this story?_**

 ** _AN: Well get to that later, Sora. Just like how we'll get to quite a few details on the explanation behind how so many things about the Kingdom Hearts mythos are known to some Marvel characters in the next chapter. That being said, I've really got nothing else that I feel like I need to add, so Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _At Stark Tower, Sora is finally fully acquainted with the members of the newly formed Avengers, and then regales them with the story of what had happened to his island. When he finishes, he's then told of the previous encounters that the people of this world have had with Keyblade wielders, about the monsters known as the Heartless, and a few other things as well. Just what secrets will be uncovered, what will Sora do with this new information, and how will this affect his adventures now that he's a Keyblade wielder? Find out in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	2. Tales of the Keyblade

**_AN: Wow. I can't believe how much attention this story has already gotten after just one chapter. I mean, I know that both series are a big deal and all, this is a much better turn out than I had expected for a story that was only one chapter long until now. Seriously, you guys are awesome, and since this new chapter is now posted, you can consider this a little reward for being so awesome._**

 ** _[audience applause]_**

 ** _Yes, yes, it's all very exciting, but before we do anything else, I'd like to answer a few reviews really quick. First off, is a little response to the guest review from "Guest", the one who recommended a story to me. I actually have read that story you mentioned, along with it's sequels, and I have to say, Aqua: Heart of Darkness and the stories that followed it are very impressive. I'll admit I'm not much of a fan of how bitter sweet the endings of those stories have been so far, but I'm sure that it'll be worth it by the end of the series. Looking forward to the next update for Aqua: Heart of Pain gets updated. Though I have to agree with you, that is a story that the canon version of Aqua should probably avoid reading._**

 ** _Aqua: Why? What's so bad about it? I mean, it just seems like a story where I turn into a bad guy or something, right? [goes to look up said story]_**

 ** _AN: AH! NO! [tackles and then ties up Aqua, Terra, and Ventus, very tightly] Trust me, I'm doing you guys a favor by not letting you read that._**

 ** _Terra: Well why'd you tie me and Ven up?!_**

 ** _AN: You've already got an extreme hatred for Xehanort, and have already gotten pretty into the power of darkness. If you read that story, I'm afraid that you'll either get more hate for the guy, or you'll just get ideas on how to get even more power from darkness that we don't need you getting._**

 ** _Ventus: Well what about me?! Why am I tied up?!_**

 ** _AN: Half of it is the same reason as Terra, at least in regards to Xehanort-hatred-levels, but the other part...well, you know how you and Aqua are a couple in both Keyblades of Future Past, and in Kingdom Hearts: Dual Keys? Well, that's not the case in this series, and I don't want you starting something out of misplaced jealousy._**

 ** _Ven: But you don't even have an opinion between Terra &Aqua and Ven&Aqua pairings! [tries to hide discreet jealous looks at Terra ("tries" being the keyword)]_**

 ** _AN: I can see the looks you're throwing, Ven, and that doesn't mean we don't all know that you and Terra are likely to be competing for her affection all the same. I mean, you guys practically did so in an author's note in Keyblades of Future Past, so why should this be any different. Trust me, like I said, this is for all of your own good, in so many ways._**

 ** _Moving on with reviews, let's answer another guest review, namely from the other guy who simply stuck with the name "Guest". Whether or not Sora will find out of if his girlfriend's heart is inside of him..._**

 ** _Sora: She's not my girlfriend!_**

 ** _AN: Yet. She's not your girlfriend yet. Anyways, whether or not Sora finds out that information before he does in the canon story line is still to be determined, but there is definitely a strong possibility that will happen. I do like that idea you proposed though on how it could happen, so maybe I'll take it under consideration._**

 ** _Next is an answer in response to my good buddy "Dragon Rider 66". Hey man, good to see you reviewing another one of my stories. Seriously, always great to hear from ya. Anyways, in answer to your first question, yeah the Avengers will be traveling to other worlds with Sora, but it won't be the full team all the time, and there's also a strong likelihood that it won't always be one of the Avengers. It could end up being another Marvel hero as well. In regards to Sora's vision on how to use the Keyblade Glider, the guy's got Ven's heart inside of him, so...yeah, that's how that happened. Finally, no, it's not that weird that you're hoping this story will meet up with Dual Keys like how I had the stories of Justice Marvel and Code Avengers crossover with one another. In all honesty, I'm actually thinking of some ideas that might make something like that happen, at least in the timeline that Dual Keys has brought about._**

 ** _Next to another regular reviewer, "Monkey D. Conan". Cool to see you too, bud. As I'm sure you've already guessed from the previous review, yeah, we'll be seeing other Marvel characters appearing here, and Sora's growth and abilities will see some "flexing" as you described it, partly because a couple of his teachers will be different in comparison to the ones he had in canon. The Avengers roster may see some alterations as well, but that won't be happening for quite some time. At least, not just yet, plus, as you've probably guessed from the cover image, Captain America, Iron Man, and Wasp are all going to be sticking with the team, regardless. There's no way this little trio of heroes are going to be excluded in any way, shape, or form. Yes, there will be Disney elements in here, but some of the worlds that Sora will visit will be different from the ones he traveled to in the first Kingdom Hearts game. Don't worry, we'll still see worlds like Agrabah, Olympus Coliseum, and Neverland, and Hollow Bastion and Traverse Town will make their way into here eventually as well, but I'm hoping to have Sora go to some other Disney worlds that he either didn't travel to in the first game, or that he has not traveled to in the KH series at all yet, so there's something that you can look forward to. Finally, Sora will most likely not be getting a mask, but he will be getting his KH2 attire, and as for a cool superhero name...I'm still brainstorming on that to be honest. I'm thinking of something with "Keyblade" in it though. That's pretty much going to be set for certain._**

 ** _Finally, in response to both "Spiderfan626" and this story's first reviewer, "edboy4926", glad you guys are enjoying the story so far, and are so excited for the rest. Here's hoping that it will continue to impress._**

 ** _Now, this chapter is not quite as action packed as the last one, and is actually a bit shorter as well, at least in my own opinion, but mostly because it recounts the events of Destiny Islands' fall to darkness, from Sora's point of view, and answers a few other questions that were raised in the previous chapter, either by the characters, or by you the readers. So, now that everything has been said, Avengers, to the chapter!..._**

 _ **I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter II**

It took very little time for the group to relocate to Stark Tower, and the time it took to find Sora something more suitable to wear until they found him a proper replacement outfit only took slightly longer. At the moment, the spiky haired teen was wearing a pair of blue jeans that were held up by his belt, a white shirt that read "Stark Industries" across the front, and his crown necklace. He mainly kept his belt and necklace because they were the only parts of his old clothes that were still intact, and because he refused to part with his necklace, but the rest of the outfit was really just stuff that they had found here at the tower thanks to some help from Iron Man and his assistant, Pepper Potts. Why the armored hero had spare clothes like this at his company building, no one was really sure. Sora was honestly just glad that none of it was too baggy or loose on him, even if the pants were only like that due to his belt.

Now, they were all gathered together in Iron Man's office, with either masks or helmets off, and with all eyes on Sora, eager to hear his story. Before that though, Sora had insisted on getting some proper introductions to everyone. Sure he knew everyone's names and had a basic idea of what they could do, but he wanted something closer to a full story than just what he had gleamed from the chaos of the fight against Graviton, and from the time he had been on this world before that. Aside from Nick Fury, Ant-Man and Wasp did not really have much else to tell Sora, aside from learning that Wasp's real name was Janet Van Dyne. Hulk did not really share all that much either, aside from the fact that he was also a scientist by the name of Bruce Banner who specialized in anything relating to gamma rays, but he insisted that he and Banner were not the same person, so Sora was left thinking that the two had a kind of split personality or something along those lines. Thor on the other hand was very happy to share a great deal of his own story. It turned out that the blonde was from a world known as Asgard and was in fact the same Thor from the mythological legends that this world had. Not only that, but he also had a magic hammer that only he could use while others would not even be able to lift it. The most amazing fact that Sora learned about Thor was that he was actually his world's prince, but that was sullied a little by the fact that Thor was not on speaking terms with his father at the moment because he believed that he was needed here on Midgard, as Thor called it, more. Finally, there was Iron Man, also known to the world at large as Tony Stark, billionaire playboy inventor. In addition to building not only the armor Sora saw him using in the fight, he had also built a number of other suits, the first of which using only whatever was available to him after he was captured by terrorists a few years ago. That, coupled with the fact that Tony had his own company, was pretty exciting for Sora, but he did feel bad for Tony when he found out that the ARC reactor in his chest was not just something for show. In fact, it was the only thing keeping a cluster of shrapnel from clawing its way into his heart and killing him. Still, it did not diminish how cool it was that he had made the thing in a cave with what one could classify as a box of scraps. When Tony had finally finished telling Sora of his origins as Iron Man, all that was left at this point was for Sora to enlighten everyone on who he was, how he got the Keyblade, and why he was now here on this world. Sora could only help a little with those answers, and he did not hesitate to warn everyone that he had just as many questions about the whole thing as they did. None of them really seemed to care at that point, though. They were just tired of waiting to hear about the kid who helped them save the city.

So, with nothing left to stop him from sharing, Sora began his tale. "Sooo…my name's Sora, and I'm a Keyblade wielder…apparently. Nice to meet you all," the boy started.

"Yeah, we got that part. How about you tell us something we don't know already," Fury deadpanned.

"Like what," Sora asked.

"How about where you're from, how you got here, why you have a Keyblade…you know, important stuff that we can't figure out without some additional details from you," Tony offered up with a hint of sarcasm and a smile of good humor to show he was only half-joking.

If Sora had been offended or upset by Tony's comment, he did not show it, but instead just smiled and picked up where he had left off. "Well, I come from a world called Destiny Islands. It's a pretty cool place to live but it's also a really small world. Like, small enough where literally everyone knows each other, practically from the moment they were born. Don't get me wrong, the sun, the almost-always-clear skies, the beaches, and everything else about the Islands are great, but after living there for so many years and seeing nothing of much excitement, some people do sometimes start to think about ways to leave and see all the other worlds out there. My best friend Riku and I were no exception. Ever since we were kids, we wanted to go out and have real adventures, not just the silly kid stuff, and we had been planning to do so ever since we went into this cave behind the waterfall on the island we would always go to play on, and found a weird door that wouldn't open, even though there was no lock or anything."

"Um, no offense Sora, but I'm kinda wondering how any of this is relevant to your story about how you got here," Janet interrupted, her face showing that she really meant it when she said she was not trying to be mean. That was something that Sora really liked about Janet. Something about her just seemed so friendly and carefree, and she clearly cared a lot about other people, especially if they were her friends or people who were on the same side as her.

"I'm actually getting to that," Sora reassured her. "You see, even though Riku and I wanted to go and find other worlds, we never really thought for sure that there were other worlds out there until the day after a weird meteor shower had lit up the night sky. The next day, there was a new girl in town who had been adopted by the mayor. No one knew who she was, where she came from, or who her real parents were, including her, because she had no memory of anything before she had woken up on the beach. Her name's Kairi, and after we heard about her, Riku and I knew that she was definitely proof of there being other worlds out there. What we didn't expect was that after we met her, she would become our newest best friend, and ever since then, the three of us have been nearly inseparable. It was at that point that our little dream of going on an adventure to find other worlds became more of a mission. Now we didn't just want to find other worlds for the fun of it, but we also wanted to try and find out where Kairi's home was so that we could all go and see it."

"Aw, that's so sweet," Janet cooed, while the others could only smile in admiration for how Sora and his friend's childish dream had become a noble quest.

Sora could only blush at Janet's words, but he quickly shook it off, hoping that no one had noticed by the time he did. "Anyway…that's what really lead to how this all started, or at least, part of it anyway. You see, it really began a couple days ago when I had this really weird dream. It felt like someone or something was testing me for some reason, having me make a bunch of choices and answer some personal questions like what I value the most, what I want out of life, and what I'm afraid of. The thing that really sticks out though is that I also had to fight against those weird monsters that appeared on the Helicarrier."

"You are referring to the Heartless, correct," Thor asked, making sure he was understanding right.

"Uh, yeah. I guess so," Sora shrugged. "I know that they looked like weird, living shadows, just like some of the ones that were on the Helicarrier, but I didn't know what they were called." He then paused to commit the name to memory, just so he could stop referring to the monsters as he had been until now, and then continued from where he left off. "Nothing else out of the ordinary really happened until the next day though when I had gone into the Secret Place, that cave behind the waterfall I mentioned earlier, looking for some provisions that Riku, Kairi, and I would need once we set sail. We were nearly finished with the raft we were building in order to go out and find other worlds, and all that was left was just a few finishing touches and making absolutely certain that we would have everything we would need."

"Wait, wait, wait; hold on a minute. Are you seriously telling me that you and your friends were planning to go out and explore other worlds on a raft," Tony asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, pretty much. We didn't really think too much about how far we would be able to get when we had started getting ready," Sora sheepishly admitted. "Anyways, I had gone into the Secret Place to try and find some provisions, and while I was there, I stopped to look around at all the drawings that Riku, Kairi, and I had scribbled on the walls over the years. While I was looking at one particular drawing, I heard someone come in from behind me, and I immediately turned to see some strange guy in a brown cloak. I had no idea who he was or where he had come from, and with the way he was talking, it was pretty obvious that he came from another world. Some of the things he said though still feel a little strange to me."

"Strange how," Hank asked.

"Well…he said some stuff like how he had come to see the door to my world, and this one other thing about how my world had been connected, tied to the darkness, and soon to be completely eclipsed. He also went on to say that I didn't know what was beyond the door, and how there was so much to learn, but I understood so little. I tried telling him that I would get out and learn what was out there, but he told me that it was pointless because one who knows nothing can understand nothing," Sora recounted, his confusion by the stranger's words showing in his eyes.

"That does make a kind of sense, actually. I mean, you can't really understand something if you don't know anything about it, but I don't see why he would say it would be meaningless to go out and learn. After all, that's the whole purpose of learning: to gain knowledge and better understand something," Hank pointed out.

"Well I don't think anyone told him that. Either that or he was just being really cryptic just to get me mad," Sora shrugged. "It was actually at that point that I could've sworn the stranger had turned to look at that weird door in the cave, and for a moment, I thought I…felt something coming from the other side of it. I'm not sure what it was, but it gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. When I looked back in his direction again, he was already gone; practically vanished the same way he had appeared, like he was some kind of ghost or something. I just figured I should forget about him and get back to Kairi and Riku with the stuff I had gathered. By the time I had gotten back to the cove, it was almost Sunset and Riku had already gone home for the day. Kairi mainly stayed behind to make sure I got everything I was expected to get, and she also took the time to work on a good luck charm made of seashells while she was waiting. Said it was to ensure that we would have a safe journey and always find our way back to each other if the three of us ever got separated."

"Why make a charm out of seashells, though," Hulk asked, honestly a little curious about that.

"Well, there's this old legend back home about how in the old days, sailors always wore thalassa shells because they were supposed to ensure a safe voyage, so I guess that was a big part of the reason why Kairi was making a good luck charm out of them. I'm still not entirely sure why she was weaving them all together in a star-shape though," Sora revealed with a shrug. "Anyway, after enjoying the sunset, Kairi and I headed home for the night so we could rest up. After all, we were going to set sail the next day, so we would need our sleep. That night though, a weird storm hit, and I immediately headed out to the island to make sure nothing happened to the raft. When I saw their boats at the dock, I knew Kairi and Riku had the same thought, but I didn't see them anywhere. All I saw were the Heartless, and this weird black thing in the sky above the island. I tried to fight back against the Heartless, but my toy sword wasn't doing anything to them, so I just ran for it until I finally spotted Riku."

"What about your other friend, Kairi? Where was she," Fury questioned.

"I didn't know. I had thought she would be with Riku, but when I asked him about it, he only said a bunch of weird stuff about how a door had been opened, and how we could go to the outside world now, along with how we probably wouldn't be able to come back and that we couldn't let fear stop us. When he said that he wasn't afraid of the darkness, I just knew something was wrong. I mean, sure, Riku's always been pretty fearless, but with the way he was talking, there was something that just didn't feel right. The next thing I knew, this weird black hole suddenly opened up beneath us and started to swallow us whole. I tried to reach out for Riku but something just kept pulling me away. When I started to see nothing but black, a bright light suddenly appeared before my eyes, and then Riku was just gone, and the Keyblade was in my hand. I knew Riku could take care of himself for the moment, so I turned to go and look for Kairi, and this time, when I attacked the Heartless, they went down easy, somewhat. It was like for every one that I destroyed, three more appeared in its place."

"Huh, kinda like HYDRA in a way," Tony muttered.

"Eventually, I found Kairi in the Secret Place, but something was wrong with her. The way she was moving, the way she talked when she said my name, even the look in her eyes made it seem like she was sleepwalking or something. I was about to walk over to her to see what was wrong when the weird door finally opened for the first time in forever, and released a powerful gust of wind that blew her right towards me. I held my arms out to try and catch her, but instead, she just passed right through me, and I was blown out of the cave. When I landed on the sand outside again, I looked around to see that my home had been reduced to nothing more than the small rock of land that I had landed on. The ocean, the main island, the small mountain in the center of our play island, everything was just gone, and the piece of land I was standing was just sitting there, floating in the air. I kept looking around hoping to figure out what had happened, only to see that the weird black thing that was in the sky had grown bigger and a giant Heartless that had a heart-shaped hole in its stomach was now towering over me. I tried to fight it, thinking that it would have killed me if I didn't, and that if I did manage to beat it, it would put everything back to the way it was. It didn't work though. Instead, the monster was sucked up into the sky, and a minute later, I was pulled in too. The only thing I remember after that was some muffled voices and then waking up on the Helicarrier," Sora finally finished.

Everyone became quite at hearing this, some of them already forming a theory on what had happened to Sora's home, and not one of them had an idea of anything good having happened. They did not want to worry the kid, but at the same time, they knew that not telling him would be a mistake. Eventually, Thor took it upon himself to break the news to him, and said, "Your tale rings of great nobility and friendship, Friend Sora, though I wish it did not have such a sad ending."

"What're you talking about? Do you know what happened to my island," Sora asked.

"Aye, though I wish I did not. From what you have shared with us, it would seem that your world has fallen to the Heartless," Thor revealed, sadly.

"What," Sora gasped in horror. "But then…what about my friends? What about Riku and Kairi?"

"…I could not say. It is hard to really know what fate awaits those whose worlds fall to the dark power of these wretched creatures," Thor admitted.

Sora hung his head in despair, feeling heartbroken at the news of what had happened to his world, and it must have showed a little more than he would have liked, because Janet was coming over to give him a reassuring hug and said, "Hey, don't worry about it too much. I mean, if you made it out okay, then your friends must have too. I'll bet they're out there looking for you right now."

Sora smiled to Janet, thankful for her reassurances, and even if it was a slim chance, he was glad that there was still some form of hope in regards to his two best friends' fate. Still, that left him with one burning question that he needed to have answered. "What are the Heartless anyway?"

"From our understanding, they're creatures that are supposedly born from the darkness in a person's heart, but they act completely devoid of human emotion, only acting on animalistic instinct and nothing else," Fury explained, shortly.

"You understand correctly, Fury," Thor confirmed with a grave nod. "The Heartless are among some of the most dangerous creatures to ever plague not only the Nine Realms, but all of existence. Born from the darkness of the heart, they seek nothing more than to plunge others into darkness, be it people or entire worlds, out of nothing more than base instinct. Though for many years, they have long since been sealed away in their native realm, the Realm of Darkness. Why they have now ventured into our own realm now, I could not say."

"Well, thanks for clearing that up," Tony remarked.

"How do we stop them for good," Hank asked.

"We do not," Thor replied.

"Give me five minutes, and I'll just smash them all," Hulk growled.

"You misunderstand, Hulk. While we can destroy the Heartless whenever they appear, we can no more destroy them for good anymore than one can destroy all evil forever. Just as every day is followed by night, there must always be a balance between light and darkness. The Heartless are merely the result of when a person's darkness consumes them," Thor explained. He then paused for a moment and said, "Though I do know of a legend that tells of how we may stem their advances and possibly rid our world of them at least for a moment."

"We'll take anything we can get at this point. As long as these things are around, the whole world is at risk, so if there is a way to stop them, now's the time to speak up," Fury informed the Asgardian.

"We must locate the Keyhole of this world," Thor replied.

"What's a finding a keyhole going to do," Wasp asked.

"Not a keyhole Wasp, _the_ Keyhole. A mystical passage that leads to the heart of a world. If the Heartless were to locate it, they would be able to go inside and swallow the world's heart, drowning it into darkness, unless we find and close it first," Thor clarified.

"Okay, say I buy this magic mumbo-jumbo for a minute, how the hell do we even close this 'Keyhole' of yours," Tony asked.

" _We_ do not. Friend Sora does," Thor said, earning a surprised look from Sora. "Only the Keyblade can seal the Keyhole of a world, locking it tight against any who would wish to use it for nefarious purposes."

"So I guess that's why this is called a Keyblade then, huh? So it can keep the Keyholes closed," Sora guessed.

"I'm pretty sure that the fact it looks like a giant key has something to do with it too," Wasp joked.

"You are correct, Wasp," Thor confirmed, not noticing the joke. "At least partially so. The first Keyblades were actually forged many ages ago, though no one truly knows why. Only that they possessed an incredible power that was unlike anything that had ever been seen before, including the ability to open or close any lock. More than that, legend says that there was once a time when there were a great many Keyblade wielders, until a dark age known as the Keyblade War had wiped a great many of them out. Now, there are very few remaining. In truth, Sora is the first I have encountered in years since the last three who had ventured into Asgard."

"And I'm guessing that one of them was Ventus, right," Tony asked.

"Verily. He and his friends, Terra, and Master Aqua proved to be valiant warriors who helped to save Asgard from a very serious threat," Thor replied.

"How do you know about this Ventus person, Stark," Hank asked. He had been wondering about how Tony knew about someone with a Keyblade for a while now. Sure, Fury had implied he knew of others with said weapon, but then again, this was Nick Fury, so that did not come as much of a surprise. The director of SHIELD seemed to know a little bit of something about everything. It only made sense that he would want to know more about how Tony knew about these people and their strange swords since from what he could tell, Tony either had not been born or was just too young to remember meeting such people at the time.

"I met him years ago when I was a kid," Tony explained with a fond smile. "He seemed to just show up out of nowhere one day, saying he was on a journey to make some friends while trying to help his two best friends. We hung out a little bit, but for the most part, he actually spent his time helping my dad with something that seemed pretty important. It wasn't until a few years ago when I had to make some modifications to my ARC reactor that I found out that my dad had managed to catch a former partner of his selling his inventions to terrorists thanks to Ven's help. Not only that, but when said partner tried to fight back, Ventus also saved both my dad and me from getting killed. I owe the guy both my father's and my life, so if there's any way I can repay him, someday, I'll gladly do it."

Everyone was touched at hearing Tony's little story, even Fury had to smile a little after he heard that, but the good mood was quickly ruined when Wasp glanced over to see Sora had a slight frown on his face. Confused as to why that would be the case, Janet naturally had to ask, "What's the matter, Sora? You look like something's bothering you."

Sora did not answer right away, but instead just crossed his arms in thought before he replied, "Well, I know already told you guys that I've never heard of any Aqua, Ventus, or Terra before, but for some reason, I suddenly feel like those names should be familiar for some reason. I can't really explain why though."

No one was sure what to think about that. It did sound a little strange in a way, after all. How could you think that a name sounded familiar when you had never even met the person who was associated to it before? It did not make sense, and things just continued to take an odd turn when Hank noticed something that made him frown a little. "Is something else wrong, Sora? You're…"

When Hank indicated his cheek, Sora immediately raised his up and was surprised to find that a tear was slowly sliding down his face for some odd reason. After wiping it away, Sora just looked at the hand that had done so and commented, "That's weird. I feel…really sad all of a sudden, like something really bad had happened, and my heart's aching. Kinda like how it would if you knew something bad had happened to someone really important."

"Maybe it's your heart's way of telling you that you did meet those people a long time ago. You probably just don't remember because you were too young or something, and somehow you later found out something had happened to them," Hulk suggested with a shrug. Everyone could only pause and gape in shock at the jade giant, surprised that he could have come up with an explanation like that. "What? Just because I'm all about smashing and getting angry doesn't mean I don't know something about that kind of thing."

Everyone backed off in response to that, not wanting to irritate the Hulk anymore than they likely already had with that previous reaction. Then again, none of them wanted to get the Hulk mad at all, so they were all quickly looking for a way to change the subject, while filing the odd moment of Sora's sudden shedding of tears away for a later discussion. Thankfully, one of them was able to think of something that they needed to discuss, and it was just as important, if not more so than that small note was at the moment. "How exactly did you even know anything about the Heartless, Fury," Hank inquired, his tone just as accusing as it had been when he had questioned the man about Graviton earlier that day.

Fury glanced around the room for a minute, studying each individual who was present, until he finally looked them all dead in the eye and stated, "Before I say anything, you should all know that this information is highly classified. Only a very few, select individuals even know about it, even in SHIELD." That got everyone's attention. Something that was extremely secret even among SHIELD agents could only mean two things. One, that the information was incredibly important, and two, that if it ever got out, the results could be incredibly catastrophic. When he saw that the heroes all understood this, Fury moved on to the actual explanation. "I had actually learned about the Heartless a short time after my last encounter with Master Aqua, and to be quite frank, I never would have known about them at all had it not been brought to my attention by another Keyblade Master. There are quite a few differences between this one and Master Aqua, but two the big ones were that he was more experienced than her, and that he was the king of his entire world."

"And this Keyblade King informed you of the Heartless because he had an encounter with them on his world," Thor inquired.

"No. According to him, his world is actually shielded against forces of darkness by some powerful artifact that has been around for ages. In truth, he had learned about the Heartless from the king of another world: Ansem the Wise, ruler of Radiant Garden," Fury corrected. "You see Ansem the Wise is a scientist who has long since been determined to fully uncover the mysteries of the heart, as he described it. That quest is what lead him to discover the strange, black creatures that could be described as 'those without hearts,' the Heartless. He and his apprentices had studied the creatures for the longest time, as well as the door that they came through, but eventually, he realized that these were things that should be left alone, scientific curiosity be damned."

"He just gave up on studying a strong clue to the answers he had been hoping to discover just like that," Hank gasped, his surprise shared by Tony. Being scientists themselves, they knew just how important something like that could be, and they had a hard time believing that Ansem would have just given up that easily.

"I doubt it was as simple as a drop of the hat, Pym, but you should keep in mind, Ansem was also the ruler of his entire world, so he had just as much a responsibility to his people as he did to his own scientific endeavors. Last I had heard, Ansem had shut down all of his research and experiments with those things, but he did keep a very detailed report on everything he did learn, which he sent me a copy of. I haven't heard anything from Ansem or the Keyblade King who introduced us since then. At least, not until the other day."

"What, did they contact you about some great impending threat that only a certain individual can stop," Tony asked, sarcastically.

"Actually, you're only half right, Stark," Fury replied, his gaze eventually coming to focus slightly more on Sora than the others. "It was only the Keyblade Master who contacted me, via a letter with that very warning. As I'm sure some of you may have noticed, a few stars in the night sky have recently gone out, and at a rate far too rapid and consistent to be considered normal. According to the king, that meant that quite a few worlds have recently fallen into darkness, and while the Heartless do hold some responsibility, they would not be able to do something like this without having someone to direct them. Someone who holds a great deal of darkness inside of them. The king then went on to say that he was going off on his own to investigate a way to stop this while sending two of his best and most trusted men out to find a specific individual that would help to ensure that this crisis was resolved. It was his belief that this person with a specific 'key' would be the one who would ensure our survival."

"I swear I was joking," Tony insisted, though he did join the others in gazing over to Sora as he summoned out his Keyblade to study it in contemplative thought. There was little doubt that the key that Fury said this king had mentioned could most likely be Sora's Keyblade.

"Well then you might want to stop, because this threat is very real, and if this particular Keyblade Master is worried about it, right to the point where he had told me he was leaving his world to try and find a way to resolve the crisis on his own, then I consider that well within reason to worry as well," Fury informed him.

"Just who is this Keyblade Master," Wasp asked, voicing the question aloud for everyone. It did not need to be pointed out that Nick Fury was not one to worry about anything to a great length based on the words of another individual, and given how the SHIELD director was talking about this person, it was pretty clear that Fury held him in high regard.

If it were another time, Nick Fury would have held it back, but he could not help himself this time. He just had to let out a small laugh before he replied, "Well, let me answer by asking you this: when's the last time any of you did anything relating to Disney?"

The heroes all glanced at one another for a minute with varying looks on their faces, until Wasp finally said, "Well…Hank and I recently attended a business party on one of the Disney Cruise Lines."

"I think the last time for me was when I last watched _Lilo and Stitch_ , _Toy Story_ , or _Aladdin_ ," Tony admitted. When he saw everyone looking him oddly he quickly defended himself saying, "What? I like _Lilo and Stitch_ for the aliens, and I loved _Toy Story_ as a kid, especially in the case of Buzz Lightyear."

"Hey, I like Buzz Lightyear too," Sora exclaimed.

"Really?"

"Yeah! I even have one of those limited edition action figures with the anti-gravity belt."

"Nice," Tony cheered, and he was soon sharing a high-five with Sora, only to forget that he was still wearing his armored gauntlet so it stung Sora's hand a little when they slapped together. "Sorry."

"Still, I'm surprised that you would like _Aladdin_ , Stark. It doesn't seem like your kind of movie," Hank interrupted.

"Hey come on. Who doesn't love a good movie with Robin Williams in it," Tony defended, and everyone had to nod in agreement on that point.

"What is this…Disney, you are all referring to," Thor asked.

"It's the name of a massive entertainment industry that makes movies, cartoons, and other stuff. The company is so popular that it even has a few theme parks and cruise lines," Hulk informed the blonde.

Thor still seemed a bit confused, much to everyone's disbelief and slight horror. Sure, the guy was Asgardian, but considering how long he had been on Earth now, one would think he would have at least heard about one of the biggest entertainment industries ever. "We'll show you a few movies later, Thor," Wasp promised. She then looked back to Fury and asked, "But what does that have to do with this Keyblade King you keep mentioning?"

"I'm getting to that, right after you all answer this next question: out of every Disney character in existence, what's the one character that everyone always thinks of first whenever Disney is mentioned," Fury asked.

At that point, it suddenly clicked together for nearly everyone in the room, but that did not mean it was any less unbelievable. "No way. Are you seriously telling us that…" Hank started to ask.

"I didn't believe it at first either, even after he appeared before me. My first thought was that he was some kind of trick or distraction that was being used to hack into or destroy SHIELD, but he quickly proved otherwise. The Keyblade Master who introduced me to Ansem the Wise and warned me about this recent threat and the Heartless is none other than the mouse who started it all: Mickey Mouse, king of the world known as Disney Town."

Everyone was silent upon hearing that until Wasp suddenly burst out laughing. She quickly stopped though when she noticed that Fury was not doing the same and said, "Oh, wait, you're serious."

"He's Nick Fury, Jan. Since when have you ever heard of him so much as telling a joke," Tony asked. He then looked back to Fury and said, "Still, I'm having a pretty hard time believing that you're actually telling us that Mickey Mouse is _real_ , and that he's one of these Keyblade wielders and a king."

"I actually saved a few pictures if you want to see them," Fury remarked, this time with a light-hearted tone that still somehow showed he was serious despite how much it sounded like it could have been a joke. "I received that note from Mickey a few days ago, and I was half-expecting his guys to show up some time soon. I didn't think for a second that the 'key' he had mentioned would appear first, though, or in the hands of a teenager who looks like he hasn't even finished half of High School."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean," Sora demanded, feeling a bit insulted by that remark.

No one answered him though, because they were a little busy with processing what they just learned. It all sounded so out there and far-fetched that some of them could not help but wonder if working as the head of SHIELD had finally caused Fury to snap. On the other hand, others like Thor and Hulk had a much easier time believing these things, mainly because they had encountered a great many people and things that would be viewed as unbelievable to the ordinary, everyday person. Still, it was a lot to take in regardless. Disney characters being real, a magic, key-shaped sword that not only was the most capable weapon in destroying creatures like the Heartless, but could be instrumental in saving all of the worlds, the fact that said weapon had come into the hands of a boy like Sora, and a secret, magic passageway to a world's heart that needed to be sealed in order to keep it from falling to darkness? Even without Sora's story, you would have to be crazy to think that would not be a lot for anyone to process no matter who they were or what they had been through. Though it was made a little easier given what Tony and Thor had said about their own experiences with other Keyblade wielders.

Crazy or not, it still did not change the fact that everything they were hearing seemed to make it look as though Sora was apparently now the best hope at saving all of the worlds, and when you considered the fact that he was probably going to help the other, newly formed Avengers in recapturing the Breakout escapees while simultaneously looking for his missing friends, then it was easily understandable as to why he would suddenly feel as though he were under a ton of pressure, even from just hearing about all of this. It was not as though Sora did not want to do it, because if people needed him to help them, then he would not hesitate to do something to help. Even so, he still had his own problems to deal with, namely finding his missing friends, and given what he had heard, they could probably be here on this world or somewhere off on another world entirely, well out of his reach since he had no idea how he was going to get to any of them. It was all the more reason for the other Avengers to start feeling a little concerned about their young friend.

For that reason, it made sense that Wasp eventually had to ask, "So what now? I mean, are we really supposed to just drop all of that on Sora's shoulders and ask him to do all of this when he's got his own problems to deal with?"

"I'm afraid the choice is out of our hands at this point, Wasp, including his," Fury replied.

"I don't believe that. There's always a choice," Hank argued. "Why can't he just leave this to someone else, or even give the Keyblade to someone who would actually be willing to do all of this so that he could focus on what he needs to do? You said it yourself, there's already another Keyblade Master out there who's looking to solve the crisis."

"And how many other worlds do you think will end up like Sora's while we're waiting for Mickey to find his miracle? More to the point, we can't expect any help from those other three either. When I asked him about them, Mickey told me that Ventus was currently hidden away somewhere in what could be considered a comatose state because his heart had been shattered and was now lost somewhere between the realms, while Terra seemed to have simply vanished after the three's last encounter with a man who would've done much worse if he had been allowed to continue unopposed. And no one has heard from or even _seen_ Master Aqua in years, so as much as I'd hate to say it, Sora's the best chance we have."

"That doesn't mean Sora can't give the Keyblade to someone else though," Tony pointed out.

This time, Thor was the one who answered instead of Fury. "The Keyblade is not something one can simply pick up and wield like a common sword, Iron Man. It is a power that must be either passed onto another by a master or that one must be chosen for, just as one must be deemed worthy to wield my hammer, Mjolnir."

Before anyone could voice anymore arguments against pushing Sora into this, the boy in question suddenly spoke up and asked, "Hey, don't I get a say in this?" After everyone had fixed their attention on him, Sora said, "I get that you guys are trying to look out for me, and yeah, I do want to find Kairi and Riku more than anything, but if other people need me to help, then I'll do what I can to help out. And besides, I'm already going to be helping you guys catch all the supervillains that escaped during the Breakout, so how's saving the rest of the worlds going to be any different?"

"You sure about this, Sora," Tony asked. Even though he was just a kid when he met Ventus, he could tell that the blonde Keyblade wielder had a great burden on his shoulders that no doubt came from being a wielder of that mystical blade.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I want to do my part and help keep others from losing their homes and friends like I did when my islands fell," Sora nodded.

That earned him a round of smiles from the other Avengers and Fury, all of them glad to see that Sora was so eager to help out like this, despite what had happened to him recently. More than that, it showed that the Keyblade seemed to have made a very good choice when it chose Sora to be its wielder. All the same, that did not mean that they were going to let his kindness go unrewarded, even if it was already an unspoken agreement that they would help him out with one of the matters he was dealing with, and Janet took it upon herself to make that clear to him on everyone's behalf. "Well, you won't have to do any of it alone, Sora. After all, you're an Avenger, just like the rest of us now, so we'll help you in any way that we can, both in saving the other worlds and in finding your friends."

When he saw the others all nod in agreement of this, Sora beamed in thanks to them all. After that had been settled, Fury saw himself out, promising that he would have some of his best people looking for the Keyhole of this world so that Sora could lock it up, while Tony asked JARVIS to start running a program to do the same while also running an ongoing search for Sora's friends after he got a description of them from the boy in question. He had to smile a little at how much more detailed Sora's description of Kairi was in comparison to Riku's, but he filed that away for a later time. With nothing else to do, everyone just left for the day, either to return to their own homes or to go to the temporary rooms that Tony had set up for them at Stark Tower. The latter of those mostly applied to Thor and Hulk though, as Janet had insisted that Sora spend the night at her penthouse on the grounds that she believed it would be a much better place to rest in comparison to what was typically a "boring old office building," not that Sora was complaining either way.

* * *

That night, sleep proved to be highly elusive to Sora, despite how gracious his current host was and how comfortable the accommodations he found himself in were. It was not because he was uncomfortable or anything, but he was still tossing and turning regardless. In truth, Sora was more restless than anything else. Not that anyone could blame him, given the day he had just had. Sure, he may have come off as seeming okay to his new friends, and he really did mean it when he said that he did not mind helping others out if he could, but the fact that the fate of not just one world but all the worlds was now apparently resting on his shoulders, coupled with the fact that he had no idea where either of his two best friends were was still something that left his mind very preoccupied. There were so many things that he was worried about regarding the whole saving the worlds thing, like what if he messed up, just made things worse, or flat out was not able to help at all, but the one thing that bothered him the most was the sadness at knowing what had happened to his home. Sure, Sora might have wanted to leave Destiny Islands and explore other worlds for as long as he could remember, but that did not mean he never wanted to see his own world again someday. After all, it was his home, where he was born and raised. Nothing could ever really replace that.

That being said, the only thing that he was more worried about was what had happened to his friends. Sure, Thor had given him some hope earlier when he said that there might have been a chance that Riku and Kairi had made it out okay, but he had no idea how good or bad those chances were. What if one or both of them had ended up just like the islands? What if they were on another world that he could never even reach, even if he was able to reach any other worlds right now? Sora did not want to know what he would do if either of those turned out to be the case. Riku had been his best friend practically since birth. More than that, he was like the older brother Sora never had. He had always been able to count on Riku for just about everything when he needed some help, like when dealing with the very few bullies that picked on him, or learning how to even fight with a sword at all, so what would Sora do if he found out something had happened to Riku? Then there was Kairi. Just the thought of the girl made Sora's heart skip a beat before becoming heavy with sadness and worry. The idea of anything bad happening to her made Sora feel worse than useless, and he hated that more than anything. If he was promising to find Riku that determination was easily dwarfed by how determined he was to find Kairi, no matter what it took or how high the risk. In this case though, his dedication to his friends was more of a double-edged sword at the moment, because it also served to remind him of how he could not do anything to find them at the moment except wait for some sort of word from Fury or Tony, and once again, he was reduced to tossing and turning in his bed while groaning a little every now and then.

His restless state did not go unnoticed forever, and it must not have helped that his frustrated groans were a bit louder than he had thought they had been, because at some point close to the middle of the night, Wasp crept into the room, clad in a black nightgown, a light yellow robe, and cute little bee slippers with a drowsy look on her face that showed she had been stirred from her sleep. "Hey, you okay, Sora," Janet whispered as she sat down on the bed next to him.

Turning to see who had spoken, Sora's face fell a little at realizing that it had been Janet, and why she had come in, prompting him to reply, "Yeah…I guess. Sorry if I woke you up."

"Don't worry about it. I was…was actually just going to bed a minute ago anyway," Janet fibbed with a yawn. Even if she was still really tired, she was still conscious enough to see Sora's depressed face through the darkness of the room. "Seriously though, are you sure you're okay?"

Sora was about to try and insist that he was again, but considering how concerned she looked, he had a feeling that he would be wasting his time trying to reassure her with half-truths and little white lies. "Not really," he finally admitted. "I mean…it's a lot to take in, you know? And besides that, I'm just…I'm really worried about my friends. I just wish I at least knew they were okay, wherever they are."

Janet could see how much this was bothering Sora, and she immediately scooted a little closer to give him a comforting hug. The boy did not have any problems accepting the kind gesture, as he was soon wrapping his arms around Janet in thanks, while the size-changer softly whispered, "Hey, it'll be okay. You'll find your friends before you know it. Just keep thinking positive, and do me a favor, keep smiling too."

"Huh? Why," Sora asked, honestly confused as to why she would ask him that.

Janet simply shrugged in response after pulling back and said, "I don't really know. I just feel like its a little weird and upsetting to see you looking sad, or without a smile on your face. So try and stay happy all right?" Sora nodded in response, doing his best to put on a small smile as he did just to show he was going to follow through, and with that little guarantee in place, Janet then stood up and offered him a hand as she said, "Come on. I think I know something that'll help cheer you up and get you to sleep a little better."

"What's that," Sora asked once he had let Janet pull him up out of bed and to his feet.

"Just something close to the final product of your new look. I've been working almost nonstop on it since dinner. We're still going to need to take it to Tony in the morning so we can give it all the bells and whistles that you'll need to make sure it doesn't end up like your old one, but I think I've got the design down to perfection."

That got Sora a little more excited, and he quickly followed Janet to the room in which she had been working on his new look. When Janet opened a closet to show him what she had come up with, Sora's smile became as wide and genuine as can be, and he was now just itching to just try it on at all, never mind testing it out against the next supervillain they faced.

* * *

The next day turned out to be like any other at the start, or at least as close to it as it could be given that the destroyed Helicarrier was still being lifted out of the bay while Damage Control Inc was hard at work repairing the damage to the city, but the calm was soon disturbed when Mandrill came crashing out the window of a tall building, swinging himself down to the street with a bag of stolen money over his shoulder. When a lone, female officer arrived on the scene and ordered him to freeze, Mandrill just turned the hypnotic and disorienting effects of his pheromone powers on her to make her pass out, and then ran over to a manhole cover to try and make his escape. It would have been easy if it were not for two reasons. The first reason was that the manhole cover was really heavy and hard for him to lift, and the second reason was actually the sudden pair of stinger blasts that suddenly struck him from behind in the bum.

"Mandrill, right? Baboon guy, pheromone powers," a female voice asked, prompting said villain to spin around looking for the speaker until his eyes finally found the small form of the Wasp standing on the ground a short distance from him. "I'm gonna have to ask you to put down the money and surrender, or else you will be beat up."

Mandrill just laughed for a minute before he remarked, "Wasp? You think I'm scared of you? I'll tear those wings off and then I'll…"

Mandrill was soon stopping short when a pair of red and gold, metal boots suddenly stepped into his field of vision behind Wasp, and his gaze was soon drawn upwards to see Iron Man standing there with his hands on his hips, silently daring the villain to finish what he was saying as Wasp floated up to hover next to his shoulder. Even though he was now a little more nervous, Mandrill was still not willing to just give up, and he back flipped away from the two before saying, "It doesn't matter. I can take both of you."

His confidence was shaken once again when a loud thunder clap rang out behind him, prompting him to turn and see Thor touch down from above then heft his hammer up into his free hand with an eager smirk. Mandrill's confidence only continued to dwindle as the ground shook beneath him due to a pair of massive footsteps, and when a large shadow fell over him, he instantly looked up to see Giant-Man stepping forwards from his left, until he came to a stop with his fists resting on his hips. Mandrill immediately started to back away from the sky-scraper sized scientist, but he only ended up backing right into the Hulk, who was growling down at him with his arms crossed. The thing that finally shattered his confidence though was when Sora dropped down to the ground, Keyblade in hand, and ready for action, as shown by how he was all decked out in his new threads.

While he retained his old crown necklace and blue belt, the rest of his outfit could be considered a complete and total make-over in comparison to his old one and it honestly made Sora feel like a real hero when he wore it. Instead of the red jumpsuit he used to wear, he now wore a red shirt beneath a black short-sleeved jacket with white lining around the cuffs of the sleeves, pockets, and collar, along with a pair of baggy black pants which contained quite a few pockets, mostly because of the red pouches that were fastened to his sides by the yellow straps that circled his pants. He also still wore rather large shoes, but they were a bit closer to normal size now, and were mostly black with some yellow in them as opposed to the other way around. His old white gloves had been replaced with a pair of black fingerless gloves with white and gold straps around each one, and to finish off this new attire of his, was a decorative red letter "A" on either shoulder of his jacket, which were covered in silver pauldrons. Tony had informed him that his new suit had some kind of nanotechnology in it that made it able to repair itself if it ever did get damaged, but Sora had honestly been too busy admiring how he looked in this new wardrobe to really pay that much attention. Not that anyone could blame him, seeing as he did look really good in his new attire.

When Sora saw Mandrill stuttering and stammering at the sight of him and his friends, he could only grin while lifting the Keyblade over his shoulder as he said, "I believe the words you're looking for are 'I surrender,' right? Unless you want to get Hulk more annoyed."

Mandrill did not need any more prompting after that, and his arms immediately shot up into the air as he quickly stammered out, "I-I-I surrender. I surrender!"

"Well, that was easy," Wasp grinned.

"Verily," Thor scowled. He had been hoping that the guy would put up more of a fight. "He brings shame to all monkeys with his cowardice."

"Hey, if it means we can take him in and avoid destroying anymore of the city, I'm not complaining. It just means we can focus on the bigger and more important stuff now," Sora shrugged.

"True enough, Friend Sora," Thor conceded, feeling a little better at that. "What say you, Iron Man?"

Iron Man could only grin as he slapped a fist into his palm as he declared, "I say one down, seventy three to go."

"And it looks like we're off to a pretty great start too," Sora nodded in agreement. No one disagreed with him on that, but they also had no idea what was going to be coming for them next.

* * *

 ** _AN: Yeah, like I said, a lot less action-packed than last chapter, but on the bright side, you did get to see Sora sport his KH2 look and help capture Mandrill at the end there. Just so you know, the only change between how it is in KH2 and here is that he has the Avengers logo on the sleeves of his jacket. Kinda like how Captain America has it on the shoulders of his suit during Avengers: Age of Ultron or Captain America: Civil War. Also, yeah, Fury learned about the Heartless from Mickey Mouse and he has spoken with Ansem the Wise a couple of times before the fall of Radiant Garden. Aside from his encounter with Aqua, how else do you think he could really know about other worlds and monsters like the Heartless?_**

 ** _Fury: And you also delegated the role Leon had in the first Kingdom Hearts game to me and Thor._**

 ** _AN: Hey, no one was expecting you to know every last detail about how to stop the Heartless and save the worlds from them, and besides, it made a lot more sense for Thor to be the one who knew the answer to that question._**

 ** _Moving on, don't think that just because the Avengers know of the Disney movies, that's going to mean they'll be able to change everything that happens in the events of other worlds. After all, they've got to protect the world order and everything, so if they were to say meet Simba during the events of The Lion King, they wouldn't be allowed to tell him that his father's death wasn't his fault but Scar's, simply for that reason. And there's also the fact that they don't know for sure that those events will play out the same way they did in the movies. After all, there's always more than one version of a story, depending on who's telling it._**

 ** _Speaking of stories, how many of you were expecting Tony's story about his encounter with Ventus to go the way it did? For those of you who don't know or can't pick up on the clues, the story is actually a reference to that of Ivan Vanko in_ _Iron Man 2_ _, namely the part about him being a former partner of Howard Stark who tried to sell their inventions to terrorists and how Tony only learned about that when he had to make some modifications to his ARC reactor._**

 ** _Tony: Good to know that my movies are having an effect on the history of this story's universe._**

 ** _AN: Glad you approve. And while we're on the topic of a franchise's effect on this story, I'm sure we're all familiar with how Sora suddenly shedding a tear for some reason that's unknown to him has become something of a reoccurring in the KH series. For example: in BBS when Ven's heart came to rest inside of Sora's back when he was a kid; just before he left Twilight Town that first and was saying goodbye to Hayner, Pence, and Olette; or when he encountered Xion in Dream Drop Distance...I think you get the idea. And you can't really blame me for putting that in there. I mean, like I said before, Ven's heart is inside of Sora, even if it is somewhat dormant, but with how much they were talking about him and his friends Terra and Aqua at that time, you can't really expect there to be no reaction at all, can you?_**

 ** _Well, I think I've covered everything I wanted to. If I did miss something, I get the feeling you guys will bring it up in your review, and I'll be sure to answer it at the start of next chapter. I'm gonna go ahead and warn you now though, we won't be seeing Sora travel to other worlds for a little bit. For now, we're going to be stick with the storyline of Avengers EMH, along with an original adventure that Sora will undertake on his own, but I do promise you that we will be seeing another world soon enough. Until then, you can move Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _It's moving day, as the Avengers are brought to their new headquarters, and for some, new home, and while everyone else is eager to get working on catching the bad guys, some of the team are still a little sketchy about how well they'll be able to work together. Either that, or they're just more eager to start a fight with each other than they are the bad guys, though that's mostly in the case of Thor and Hulk. Tensions only seem to escalate when the Hulk seems to go out on a rampage for some unexplained reason, and some old enemies of Thor's only make things all the more difficult. Can Sora and the Avengers manage to deal with these two Asgardian villains and still keep the team together, or is that just being too optimistic? Find out in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	3. Some Assembly Required

**_AN: Hey guys, welcome back to the newest chapter of Hearts of Avengers, and we've got quite a few reviews that I would like to answer right away before we get started._**

 ** _Wasp: Considering the content of a couple of those reviews, I'm surprised you didn't finish this chapter sooner so you_ could _answer them._**

 ** _AN: I actually would've, but I was right in the middle of working on the next chapter in Kingdom Hearts Dual Keys, so I couldn't just jump right into things, and I really don't like posting chapters that are basically just a really long author's note. Speaking of which, in response to guest reviewer "atlas67", when_ exactly _did I_ ever _break the fourth wall during the_ main story _of the last chapter? The only times I normally ever do that is during these Author's Notes, and that's just for the purpose of responding to reviewers like you and others. Doing otherwise would be considered very rude in my book, so if you've got a problem with that, sorry, but that's just how it is. The only way the fourth wall would ever be broken in the main story of any of my works would be if characters like Deadpool were to show up, so you shouldn't have to worry about that, because if you've read any of my other stories, you'd know just how I feel about Deadpool being in my stories._**

 ** _Deadpool: Aw, come on! What's wrong with me? Everybody loves me! [suddenly gets catapulted through the ceiling and out of the room by AN]_**

 ** _AN: Yeah, I doubt_ anyone _has enough time in_ anything _to answer that question, or point out the amount of wrong in that last sentence. Moving on..._**

 ** _In response to some points made by "sixcats65", or should I say_ point, _seeing as the whole review was about why telling Fury and SHIELD about the Heartless threat was a bad idea. You have to keep in mind that the first time they contacted him about all of this was several years ago, and in my mind, this was at a point in time before Tony Stark had become Iron Man and was still in the weapons business. More to the point, Thor already knew about this simply because Asgard is well aware of the existence of other worlds and the Keyblade, but he was going back and forth between Earth and Asgard so much at the time that he was not the most reliable person to entrust that kind of thing with at the time. And before you mention that Wakanda is a better option, another thing to keep in mind is that this was during the time T'Chaka, aka Papa Panther, was running things, and that said nation did not even trust outsiders that were from their own world. You really think they'd be that welcoming to ones that come from another world? More on that later though. Finally, they did not tell the entire government, just Fury and one or two leading figures, who have kept it under wraps ever since, kinda like how King Triton has kept that kind of thing secret even from his own family in the canon KH story line, if you'll all recall. Beyond that though...it was really just a matter of not having any better options at the time. Really, the only person in my opinion that would've been better to trust with this info was taking a seventy-year-long nap in the ice at the time, and Fury was in charge of an organization that protected the whole world, and unlike some people *cough* Maria Hill *cough*, Fury is willing to go to guys like the Avengers when necessary to save the world. Here's hoping that makes my point on that matter._**

 ** _Sora: Hey, how about this one here from "10smash3re8" about the development of my powers?_**

 ** _AN: Right, I would've answered that last chapter, but it was already posted by the time I saw that review. Anyways, I'd just like to point out that this story is an AU, as in stuff happens in this story that would not normally happen in canon, and in this case, Ven's heart is having a more profound impact on how Sora's abilities develop than it did in the canon story. Besides, this was honestly the more realistic route to go if you wanted Sora to be able to keep up with the other Avengers, all of which had some way of getting over to wherever Graviton was fast, be it by flight or making long-distance jumps in a single bound. If Sora did not suddenly learn how to summon a Keyblade Glider, he would've been just running the entire time, and likely have not gotten anywhere near the fight until everything was over, and that just wasn't going to fly. Just be glad I went a more realistic route and had him learn how to use the Keyblade Glider, albeit with some difficulty, a point that's going to be emphasized quite a bit for most of this chapter I might add, as opposed to having him learn something like say Flowmotion, an ability that as far as we know, Ventus never seemed to have learned. Sure, we've seen that apparently Aqua knows something like it in Birth By Sleep 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage, but keep in mind, she's also older and more trained than Ven, and she was also the only one of their trio to become a true master._**

 ** _Iron Man: Wasn't there something else from "atlas67" that you wanted to address?_**

 ** _AN: Right the mentioning of Disney in the story. Just because it never actually happened in the series, does not mean it isn't actually there. As we've often seen, Marvel tends to have quite a bit of a basis in realism despite the fictional and out-of-this-world nature that its characters, stories, and adventures tend to take on, so it's not really that much of a stretch to say that Disney does not exist in this timeline. So yeah, there's your reasoning for that._**

 ** _Finally, in answer to a question that "Monkey D. Conan" had in his most recent review of this story, yes, Spider-Man will have a very significant role in this story, but you won't find out why for a couple more chapters at least._**

 ** _Oh, and before I forget, yes, there will still be Disney villains and worlds showing up in this, and the Masters of Evil will have quite the part to play in all of this, though their involvement with the villains of other worlds will not be quite as well known to the members at first. You'll see a hint of what I mean later on in this chapter. Beyond that, again, you'll have to wait and see, because as we all know, I don't do big spoilers like that._**

 ** _And hey, "sorahearts210", thanks for the suggestions on a codename for Sora, but a couple of them sound a little too similar to that of a character or two from the Final Fantasy series for my taste. Speaking of which, since I know folks are going to wonder about this, the Final Fantasy characters that we've seen appear in KH so far, will have a role in this story, some bigger than others, but I think I'll be keeping just which ones the latter will apply to and what it might be a secret for now. Think of it as something to tease your minds with. Now then, I'd we've spent enough time rambling and ranting here, so..._** ** _Avengers, to the chapter!..._**

 _ **I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter III**

A few days had passed since the Avengers caught Mandrill, and unfortunately, neither Tony nor Fury had managed to locate either their world's Keyhole or either of Sora's friends. It was disheartening news to hear, but Tony had quickly reassured Sora that he was not going to stop looking, so the kid should not give up hope just yet. That definitely made Sora feel a little better, but he was still worried about what it would mean if they never found anything regarding Riku and Kairi. Anyone could have seen that fact clear as day all across Sora's face, and Tony was no exception, which was why he had started working around the clock on a special project that he was hoping would brighten Sora's spirits a little. Or to be more accurate, he was hoping that it would have the added benefit of cheering Sora up in addition to what its original, intended purpose was, and a week later, Tony was ready to show everyone exactly what it was that he had been working on for the team.

They were all asked to gather at a three story mansion that sat in what could have been nearly the center of New York early the next morning, and so far, only Pepper and Hulk had arrived. Naturally, the redhead was a little apprehensive standing next to the jade giant, but she was able to keep herself from showing it. Spending years helping to run Tony's company, practically being the company's CEO while Tony was off being Iron Man, really helped her in that regard. After another few minutes or so, Pepper checked her watch once again, confirming that they were now well past the appointed meet-up time, and then turned to the Hulk and said, "Well, thank you for actually being on time, unlike the others."

Hulk said nothing in reply, but did narrow his eyes a little bit, making Pepper feel a little uncomfortable and start wishing that someone else would show up soon. Thankfully, her prayers were somewhat answered when Thor descended upon the area, and called out, "Ho Miss Potts, and Hulk. Tis good to see you again. Are you ready for the upcoming battles?"

"You ready to get a watch," Hulk growled. Clearly, he did not enjoy being kept waiting.

The two just held each other's glare after that comment, making Pepper worried that they would start a fight in the middle of the street, which was the last thing that they needed to happen right now, especially for Hulk's sake. She was not ashamed to admit that she had breathed a sigh of relief when Janet arrived and stepped in before anything could start. "We're here," the Wasp announced. "Sorry we're late. I had to tear Hank away from his lab, and don't even get me started on how hard it was to get Sora out of bed."

"It was an important experiment," Ant-Man protested as he grew to normal size after dismounting the ant he had flown over on.

Thor was about to comment on how he had expected Hank to be at his giant size when he noticed that one of the people that was supposed to have come with Wasp was still missing. "Where is Friend Sora," Thor questioned.

Wasp and Hank both glanced around for a minute in confusion until the former just shrugged and said, "I thought he was right behind us. Guess he's still having trouble with his Keyblade-Cycle."

"Glider. It is known as a Keyblade Glider actually," Thor corrected.

Before anyone could ask Thor if that really mattered or not, they all heard the faint sounds of someone yelling from above them. They turned their gazes upwards in the direction of said cries as they grew louder, and all jumped a little when the young Keyblade wielder himself came falling down from the sky right before their eyes. He probably would have crashed right into the ground too had Hulk not leapt up and caught him before he had come close to hitting the pavement, and the minute that he had been set down on his feet again, Sora looked up to the big guy and panted, "Thanks Hulk. You have no idea how glad I am to have avoided another epic crash landing."

"Maybe you if practiced as much as you slept you'd have been able to keep that bike of yours from disappearing on you in midair by now," Hulk grumbled, still a little ticked that the others were late.

"Hey, can I help it if the bed that Janet's been letting me use is really comfortable," Sora questioned with an easy going tone, resting his hands behind his head in his usual relaxed position with a smile on his face.

"I'm honestly surprised that you have not yet mastered the use of your Keyblade Glider, Friend Sora. From what I've heard, that ability is actually one of the easier powers for a Keyblade wielder to master," Thor remarked.

Sora's grin became a little sheepish at that point. He had a feeling that he was only having trouble because of how he had only learned to summon the Keyblade Glider because of that weird vision of his, as opposed to how the ability was normally learned, and he was about to inform the Asgardian of this fact when Hulk's patience started to wane a little more than it already had and roared, "Where's Stark?"

"Sorry! Sorry, everyone. I got caught up in a meeting," Iron Man called out as he landed before the fully gathered group. Before he could say anything else though, he caught a glimpse of the look Pepper was throwing him out of the corner of his eye and admitted, "Uh…Okay, actually, I missed that meeting too."

"And Kairi calls _me_ a lazy bum," Sora muttered. Since they were standing closest to him, Janet and Hulk both overheard him, and the former had to let out an amused giggle while the latter's frown just slightly turned into a small, amused smile.

"I heard that," Tony informed Sora as he removed his helmet, letting the kid see his unamused face. He then cleared his throat and picked up where he left off as he gestured to the mansion that they were standing in front of as he announced, "Anyway, thanks for coming, and welcome to Avengers Mansion. This was my…" Tony was unable to anymore than that due to Hulk knocking the gates off their hinges in a huff before walking into the building. After staring after their gamma-powered teammate for a minute, Tony could only mutter, "You know, that was really rude."

"To be fair, we did keep him waiting for a while, and he was the only one who actually showed up on time, so…" Sora pointed out, trailing off at the end while he followed Hulk into the building, and the others had to nod in agreement with him after a minute as they followed his lead.

The minute everyone was inside, Thor went to inspect an odd device on the wall when a voice suddenly spoke up from out of nowhere, with the speaker nowhere in sight. _"Greetings, Thor Odinson. May I offer you a drink?"_

"What manner of palace is this," Thor questioned in awe.

"And who said that," Sora asked as he looked every which way he could for the speaker.

"In order, this was a museum for the Maria Stark Foundation; my mother's home. I've had it upgraded since the Breakout, and I thought this could be our headquarters," Tony explained to Thor. He then turned to Sora as Wasp flew around the foyer to take in the sights of the room in awe, and said, "As for who spoke, that was JARVIS, my personal artificial intelligence, who now also runs the mansion. Anything you need, JARVIS will provide. Say hi, JARVIS."

 _"Indeed,"_ JARVIS replied.

"Cool," Sora breathed in awe, and with that, the tour of the Avengers' new headquarters began.

Over the course of said tour, Tony was basically explaining the rundown of everything in the building, starting with how they had a full kitchen with a chef on call, the former of which Hulk instantly took advantage of by digging into whatever food he could find. Wasp could not stop herself from groaning in disgust when Hulk let out a long, loud belch, but Sora had to grin a little at the jade giant. Moving from the kitchen allowed everyone to discover that the mansion had twelve bedrooms, three of which were quickly claimed by Thor, Hulk, and Sora, along with maid service, laundry, and room service, and finally, they ended in the lounge, which also doubled as a home-theater with satellite TV and movies. Every minute that passed on the tour made Sora and Janet get more and more excited, and they were both eager to see just what kind of cool things they could play around with. Sure, Janet was able to afford a penthouse apartment in the city, but she still found this kind of thing to be really enjoyable. Sora on the other hand had always lived in a home that was typical of the middle-class, so the fact that he was going to be living in a mansion while he was here alone was pretty exciting for him. Hulk just kept a neutral, cross look on his face, not really seeming to care either way about the house, while Thor's expression was just as even. Seeing as the blonde was a prince who had seen many wondrous palaces before in his lifetime, it was really no surprise that he was not as easily impressed as his youngest teammate or his only female teammate.

Hank on the other hand was a bit more vocal in his own thoughts about the mansion. "Are you serious, Stark? _This_ is what you spent a week preparing?"

"Uh, no. I haven't gotten to the good stuff yet. You're gonna need these," Tony corrected, prompting Pepper to step forward and start handing out small white cards with a red bar at the top, a black screen on the upper right corner which displayed an image of each Avenger, and a fancy letter "A" in the center of it on the left side that changed from red to blue when the cards activated. "These ID cards are linked to the Stark Industries satellite network, and will keep us in audio and video communication anywhere in the world."

"Will they be able to work on other worlds too, or even send a signal from another world," Sora asked, prompting everyone to turn a questioning look to him. "What? If I'm supposed to keep all the worlds safe, then that means that I'm probably going to end up going to other worlds sometime soon, so I want to be sure that they'll work then."

"Well…I'd like to say yes, but I doubt we'll really know one way or the other until such a thing actually happens," Tony admitted. "But, given that I've also hooked the ID cards up with their own personal server, they should be able to send a signal without a direct link to the Stark Industries satellite network, but it would only be over a short distance as opposed to worldwide. One last thing you should know about these bad boys is that they also give you full access and control of the mansion, so I'd make sure you have them on you whenever you're here."

"I can show you how it…" Pepper started to offer Hulk, thinking he might need a little extra help learning the card's functions, until Hulk just snatched his away.

"You think I can't figure it out," Hulk demanded.

"I'm sure you can," Pepper nervously reassured him as she slowly backed up a little.

Sora could not help but frown a little in concern. Even without being here for very long, it was clear that Hulk had a hard time trusting people, and he had already figured out part of the reason why just from what Hank and Janet had said after Hulk had shown up during the fight with Graviton. If people really thought that Hulk was a bad guy, they had probably treated him rather badly for a long time, so it would only make sense that Hulk would have a hard time being nice and trusting other people. Sora felt really bad for him knowing that, and he wanted to do something to help Hulk see that he had friends here, but apparently, he was the only one who realized that, because all the others could see was what would happen if Hulk got too upset, while Thor just saw the big guy being rude to a nice lady.

"'Twould be wise to treat the lady with respect," Thor cautioned the big guy once he had marched over with a threatening tone.

"Which lady do you mean, Blondie," Hulk retorted with a growl, getting right in Thor's face to return the Asgardian's glare with his own. Thankfully, Tony made sure to stop any sort of fight between the two by giving a small cough and directing everyone's attention to a secret passage that was opening up in the fireplace.

Everyone immediately followed Tony into the secret elevator, and once they were all inside, they could feel it descending downwards, enshrouding them in darkness for a moment until they could see again, quickly being greeted by the sight of what looked like a large, underground pyramid. "And voilà, the sublevels," Tony proudly announced. When the elevator came to a stop again, allowing them to step out, they all found themselves in what looked like a very impressive laboratory that looked similar to something out of science fiction, making Hank gaze around in awe as he started thinking of the various experiments he could run here. "The mansion's got a beyond-state-of-the-art science lab, space for Hank's modular labs, as well as my armory," Tony explained, having caught a glimpse of the look on Hank's face when they stepped into the room.

When they came into the next room, all they could see was a large empty space with one massive pool beneath them. "Wow, big pool," Wasp commented when she had seen it.

"No kidding. I think it's close to the size of some of the oceans back on my world," Sora commented, exaggerating of course. He knew there was no way that could be possible.

"Actually, the pool's on the roof," Tony revealed. A minute later, the water parted and allowed a large white and red jet with the same logo as the one of the team's ID cards on the sides to ascend up to their level. "This is a fully functional hangar with two prototype, high-speed, aerial shuttles: the Quinjets. Weapons, shields, and an air speed of Mach Eight, for those of us who can't fly." Hulk, Hank, and even Sora all threw a look at Tony for that last bit. Though Sora was only doing so because he was well aware that they all knew how bad he was at flying on his Keyblade Glider, it did not mean he was feeling any less offended. "But they can go into space too," Tony quickly added.

"You mean we could use these to get to other worlds," Sora asked.

"Uh…No, unfortunately not. We haven't really mastered space travel to that degree, Sora. The farthest we've reached is the Earth's moon," Tony revealed, earning a disbelieving look from the Keyblade wielder. "What? We're working on it."

Sora kept his disbelieving gaze up for a little bit longer, until he finally shrugged and admitted, "Well, it's still better than what my friends and I had ever managed before now."

Tony smiled a little in relief, glad to see that Sora was not too disappointed about that, but his smile quickly turned to a smirk when he continued on to say, "Then there's the training room."

"What, like a gym," Wasp asked.

"Well, kind of," Tony shrugged, as his smirk became a little more knowing, making Sora feel like they should probably be a little nervous.

* * *

As it turned out, Sora was wrong. They should not have been a little nervous; they should have been very nervous and maybe a little afraid. Tony's training room, while very impressive with its state-of-the-art technology, was really more like a death chamber for anyone who was unprepared. Literally everything was trying to kill the heroes as they all found out very quickly. Sora could swear he heard Wasp cry out in fear a few times from where he had been in the room, and he knew that she had started from a different position that was probably somewhere very far away from him. From the sound of things, it did not seem like Thor and Hank were doing much better than her either. In fact, if he had to guess, the only ones who were likely doing well in this thing at the moment were likely Hulk and Iron Man, the latter because he had designed the thing so he most likely knew what to expect. That was a little cheat code that was going to have to be remedied sooner or later, even though Tony did say that the system was designed to be able to adapt for the person running it, not to the point where it was unwinnable, but just to the point where it would be a challenge for whoever was running the gauntlet. Hulk on the other hand barely had to do anything much aside from just standing around, punching stuff, or tearing through it with his bare hands, and needless to say, the big guy was feeling very bored and disappointed by how weak a challenge the thing was.

As for Sora himself, well, let's just say that he had the worst time handling the thing out of everyone there. Sure, he had been through quite a bit of his own training back on Destiny Islands, but a few races around an obstacle course that he and his friends made, some play fighting with friends, and his various sparring matches with Riku were nothing compared to this thing. "Tony! I'm not laughing at all, here," Sora shouted as he ran, ducked, and dodged the lasers, missiles, and whatever else was being sprung on him in the corridor he was in. Occasionally, he was use his Keyblade to deflect some of the things that were being thrown at him, but considering he was still new with using the thing, it was not exactly easy for him to keep up an even pace for long, so he ended up getting tagged quite a few times. He was just glad that these weapons were not designed to kill somebody. A minute later though, he had to skid to a halt when a large, destroyed machine suddenly crashed through the wall and nearly fell down on top of him, and when he glanced up at where the thing had come from, his face fell into an annoyed expression at seeing Thor looking down through the hole that he had just made, indicating what had just happened. "Hey, watch it," Sora shouted up, drawing an apologetic smile from the Asgardian as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

Before Sora could move forward again, another large machine came crashing up through the floor, and into the next room where Iron Man was easily flying around a grid of lasers. A second later, they all heard JARVIS announce that the exercise was done, and everyone who was closest turned to where the last destroyed machine had been thrown from to see a somewhat bored looking Hulk glaring up at Stark as he asked, "That the best you've got, tin man?"

"It's self-repairing. Thanks for asking," Iron Man revealed, slightly annoyed by Hulk's needless destruction. "By the way, that was level one…of ten."

Hulk crossed his arms at that, feeling a little more impressed while Wasp came to rest on his shoulder, panting hard, while Sora just gaped at Tony in disbelief. _That_ was only level _one_ out of TEN? Now that he knew that, Sora could only think of one thing to say. "I think I preferred fighting the Heartless or sparring with my friends and Riku over that."

Thor looked at the boy in confusion as they all moved to exit the training room, and asked, "I somewhat understand why you would choose to battle Heartless as opposed to Iron Man's room of machines, but why would you desire battling with either a small number of friends or even just one friend over something more challenging?"

"Well, fighting a large group of my friends from back on Destiny Islands is a lot tougher than you think, actually. And besides that, out of everyone back home, Riku is actually the best fighter out of all of us. He's never been beaten by anyone in a fight, fair or unfair. I've only come close because Riku's the one who taught me a lot of what I know about sword-fighting. But when it comes to races, I'm proud to say that the win-loss ratio between us is actually a lot closer, with it currently being in my favor after our most recent race," Sora revealed.

Thor could not help but smirk a little at the pride that Sora's voice betrayed when he spoke of that race, as well as the admiration that it carried when he talked about his friend. It reminded him a little of how he would speak of some of his own friends from Asgard. Meanwhile, Janet had a slightly amused grin on her face that was much clearer when she returned to normal size in order to walk alongside them. "You know, I can't help but wonder if you and this Riku guy are best friends or bitter rivals after hearing that," Janet admitted.

"Honestly, it's a little of both, minus the bitter part," Sora shrugged in admittance. "Me and Riku have always been competing against each other since we met, be it for fun or for some other reason. Most of the time though, it's really more so that we can challenge each other to get stronger, and to make sure we're strong enough to protect the things that matter, like our friends."

Janet probably could have kept herself from asking her next question, but after hearing Sora's story the other day she just had to ask it, if for no other reason than to see if she could actually tease Sora on this particular topic. "I'm guessing you two have also competed with each other for Kairi's attention at the very least once or twice, haven't you?"

"Wha-?! Uh, no! No, we haven't! I-I mean, w-why would we do that? Th-that's just…That's just crazy, Jan. You're crazy. Kairi's my girlfrie…I mean BEST friend! Yeah, my very best friend and Riku's too, who happens to be a girl. Why would we be competing for her attention or anything else regarding her for that matter? I mean, that'd be like treating her like some kind of trophy or something," Sora quickly protested, barely keeping the stutter out of his voice as he spoke, while waving his hands rapidly in denial.

Thor found it rather odd that Sora was suddenly so nervous about this line of conversation, but he was also concerned about the young man for another reason. "Are you all right, Friend Sora? Thy face has turned rather red."

"Nothing! I mean, it's nothing. I'm probably just…a little out of breath after that little exercise in the training room," Sora stuttered, but he still turned away so that no one could see the obvious blush that was still growing on his face.

Even though they were not looking right at each other at the moment, Tony and Janet knew that they both had identical, knowing smirks on their faces that proved they knew how Sora really felt in regards to his friend Kairi, and there was a very likely chance that they were both going to give the kid a hard time in teasing him about this later on. Right now though, they still had one last stop on their tour of the Avengers' new headquarters, and afterwards, there was also the matter of getting right to work in discussing some other details. Thankfully for Sora, they had just arrived at the final destination on the tour, though it was not quite as impressive as the rest of the sublevels, to put it mildly. Yes, it was very large, but it was also very empty. There was literally nothing in the room except for a single, round table with a red outer rim, and a blue center that had the same logo from the ID cards and the Quinjet on the center in black, pretty much cementing that the decorative A was going to be the team's logo.

"And this is the Assembly Hall," Tony announced as the lights in the room came on.

While Wasp cooed in awe and the others looked about in slightly similar states, Sora just glanced around passively for a minute until he finally said, "There's not really much in here."

"Well there's not supposed to be, usually," Tony admitted. "This is more of a place where we can safely gather together for important meetings, discussing various different plans, or even just taking a monitor duty shift."

Sora nodded in consent of this and then followed after Wasp and Thor as they walked up to the table, each ready to start their first meeting as a team. Hank on the other hand had a few words for their leader. "All the money you've thrown into this is very impressive, Tony. Were you bored? Are we your new pet project? Why are we here," Hank asked a bit snidely.

"That's a good question. Kind of angry, but that's okay," Tony informed Hank as he walked over to the head of the table, while Hulk just moved off to the side somewhere with his arms crossed. "JARVIS, bring up the most-wanted list," Tony then requested after he set his helmet down on the table, and a moment later, a large hologram displaying images of all the escaped supervillains appeared from the center of the table. "Seventy-four supervillains escaped the day of the Breakout. Graviton is being held by SHIELD, and we caught Mandrill, but we've got more work to do."

It was at that point that Sora actually started to zone out of the conversation, not really paying that much attention to what the others were saying. He figured he could just look at the team's Most-Wanted List later on and study up then. Aside from that, he figured that everything else being discussed was going to be a matter that seemed to go over his head a little or just involved stuff he did not understand since he was not from this world. He was eventually stirred from his bored stupor when he overheard Hulk muttering something, but it did not sound like he was talking to any of them.

"This was your idea," the jade giant had said, but when Sora turned to look at Hulk, it appeared that he was talking to his reflection for whatever reason.

Feeling curious, Sora discreetly moved away from the table as the others continued to talk to Hulk, only making a mild note of how Hank pointed out that they no longer had a prison to send the supervillains to now that the Vault and the Big House were destroyed, and since no one had heard anything from the Cube. "Hey Hulk, who're you talking," Sora asked once he was next to the big guy.

"None of your business, Spiky," Hulk grunted. He did not really have anything much against the kid, but at the same time, he was still not going to just open up and become best friends with any of these guys in an instant, even if they had stood up for him before. Besides, this kid did not even know him, so why is he bothering trying to act like they are buddies? When Sora just shrugged in compliance and then leaned back while resting his hands behind his head, making no move to go back to where the others were, Hulk figured that the kid had decided to stay put where he was for the moment, and turned back to the others just as Tony brought up something about the Negative Zone. "Too much talking. We should just go get these guys," Hulk grumbled, anxious to get back out where the action was.

"Yeah, I'm with you, but where do you think they are," Sora agreed, while pointing out a small flaw in Hulk's plan. "I mean, it would be nice to know where to find these guys instead of just going around looking for them at random, wouldn't it?"

Hulk had to admit that the kid had a point. Sure, he may like smashing stuff, but he was not one to smash needlessly anymore. Whenever he got into a fight these days, he was always doing his best to try and avoid highly populated areas as a way of making sure no one got hurt by accident during his rampages. He was about to admit that the kid was right when Wasp suddenly yawned and said, "You know, maybe we should call it a day, then concentrate on beating up some bad guys tomorrow."

"At least one of you knows what they're doing," Hulk huffed as he turned to leave. "Even the kid has a better idea of what to do than you guys."

No one was really sure how Sora should take that latter comment from Hulk, including Sora. Had the Hulk complimented him or was it more of a backhand compliment? It was really hard to tell, but when it came to the former statement, Thor knew exactly how he was going to react. "I have had enough of you, creature," the Asgardian angrily declared, and he was soon storming up to Hulk once again. "Your insults end here!"

"You want to go, Goldilocks? Let's go," Hulk challenged, and the two probably would have started duking it out right there and then had Sora not stepped in between them at what was likely the last minute.

"Hey, come on you guys. We're supposed to be on the same team, remember? Besides, if you two want to fight, could you at least take it to the _self-repairing_ training room first? In case you forgot, I'm living here at the mansion full-time too, just like you guys, so I'd kinda like to avoid leveling the place on the first day," Sora reminded the two big guns of the Avengers.

Thor and Hulk both had the decency to look a little ashamed at forgetting that they were not the only ones who would be living at the mansion like it was their own home, and while Sora did not mind staying with either Janet or Tony, he did not want to inconvenience either of them forever, so he was honestly glad that Tony had said that he could stay at the mansion if he wanted too. That was not going to be possible if those two started fighting inside any part of the building that was not the training room, and the two bruisers quickly made a silent promise to pick this up later in said part of the house. Though Hulk still left the room in more of a huff than Thor had, but Sora was still glad that the two were not going to start fighting each other right now. He may spar with Riku and some of his other friends from back home on the islands, but that did not mean he enjoyed seeing his friends fighting each other in the way that Thor and Hulk looked like they were going too.

"Wow, he's gonna be fun," Wasp remarked in a sarcastic tone.

"Hey, you're not the one rooming with both him and Thor," Sora whispered in reminder. "Besides, I'm sure that he's a great guy to be around so long as we don't upset him too much."

"Well, I'll just let you keep playing peacemaker just to be on the safe side, Sora, because I'd also appreciate it if none of you guys level this place on day one. Setting all this up wasn't exactly cheap, you know," Tony informed the kid, though it was pretty clear he was half-joking on that last bit.

Sora just smiled in reply to the armored Avenger, and then turned to head over to the training room with Thor following after him, and the others leaving a short time later. Sora figured that if Hulk and Thor did not end up going a few rounds there, he could use the place to try and get a better handle on using his Keyblade Glider. After all, as had been pointed out earlier, he needed all the help and practice he could get when it came to using that thing.

* * *

"Argh! Why can't I get this," Sora groaned in frustration as he threw the Keyblade down at the ground out of frustration. The magic blade only clattered across the floor of the training room a few times before it vanished in a flash of light and reappeared in his hand of course, but Sora quickly dismissed it afterwards, not really wanting to continue with his practice right now.

Sora had been down in the training room for a few hours now, trying his very best in every way that he could to get a better handle on using his Keyblade Glider, with little to no success at all. He had tried everything he could think of, and while for the most part he could usually summon the thing without much trouble, getting it to stick around or at least not disappear on him while he was very high up in the air was still a very serious problem. It always seemed to vanish and change back into the Keyblade after about thirty minutes at least, with forty-five minutes being the longest time he had been able to keep it out. That was not exaggeration; he had actually timed it with JARVIS's help, and the fact that he was still barely able to control it while in flight was not raising his spirits at all. Sure, he could steer it pretty well now, but it would always shoot straight forward or backwards at uncontrollable speeds most of the time for a few minutes before he managed to get it under control and fly properly, and when that was not the case, he would barely be able to get it going at all before it actually started flying at the speeds he wanted to go. He figured that part of the problem had to do with something in his mind, so he had tried to calm his mind as much as possible, mostly by trying to get used to riding on a flying motorcycle that was normally a key-shaped sword, but that did not really do much more than extend the time it stayed as a Keyblade Glider to what it currently was. When he started out, he could only keep the thing out for twenty minutes at most, so he liked to think that getting closer to having it out for an hour was a pretty big step in the right direction, sort of.

No matter how you sliced it though, Sora's control over the Keyblade Glider was barely any better than what he heard Hulk's temper was said to be, and he had now run out of ideas on how to get it under control. Once again, Sora could not help but feel that his lack of control over the Keyblade Glider was due to the fact that he had learned how to summon it from his weird vision as opposed to how most Keyblade wielders normally learned, but then again, he was really only guessing in that regard since he had no clue how the Keyblade wielders before him had learned how to summon the thing. It was not exactly easy to ask about that since he was the only Keyblade wielder who was around these days, apparently. Still, some of his friends had all mentioned having met Keyblade wielders before, so he had to figure that at least one of them might have some idea on how to better get the hang of using the thing. Tony was obviously out, both because he was currently doing something at his company and because he did not really seem to be one who accepted magic so easily, and he was not really looking to try and contact Fury to see if he could help given what he had learned about the SHIELD director's involvement with Graviton, so as far as he could tell, that just left one person to assist him, and he decided to go and talk with that person right away.

Making his decision, Sora quickly rushed out of the training room and up to the main floor of the mansion in the hopes of finding Thor, and in a stroke of luck, he actually found the Asgardian sitting comfortably by the fire with a slightly cross look on his face. No doubt he was still a bit upset about the previous incidents with Hulk, but Sora was sure that the two would have headed down to the training room to get it out of their systems by now. Maybe they had while he was not paying attention and Thor was dissatisfied with the outcome, but right now, Sora did not really care too much. He wanted to get some help with learning how to use the Keyblade power he had been struggling so much with. So, he just strolled right into the lounge with a smile and said, "Hey Thor, is there any chance you could help me out with something?"

Thor turned his gaze from the fireplace and over to Sora, and his scowl faded a little as he replied, "I may not be a Keyblade master or expert on the matter myself, but I will happy to provide what assistance I can to you, Friend Sora. What is it you need?"

"I was wondering if you had any tips on how I could get a better handle on using my Keyblade Glider. I just can't seem to get to it to stay out for as long as I want it to, and the best I've gotten is keeping it out for forty-five minutes at most. Any chance you knowing something that could help," Sora explained.

Thor hummed in thought as he placed a hand to his chin, and then looked back to Sora as he inquired, "Hasn't thy own master told you anything of how to use the glider form of your Keyblade?"

"No, I never had a master, remember," Sora reminded the Asgardian. "The thing just appeared in my hand while my home was falling to darkness."

"How is it that you learned to summon the Keyblade Glider at all, then," Thor asked.

"I'm…not really sure," Sora admitted, and he then went on to explain what allowed him to learn about the ability. Everything from the strange headache after Fury had mentioned it to him during the fight with Graviton, to the strange vision, and even the description of the three people he had seen in his vision.

By the time Sora had finished his explanation, Thor's eyes had widened a little in awe, and he quickly said, "Truly, an unexpected development indeed. Friend Sora, I believe I know of the ones you saw in your vision. From the descriptions that you have just provided, it sounds as though you saw the Keyblade wielders Terra, Ventus, and Master Aqua. I could not say why Ventus' parts of your vision were through his own eyes though, but the fact that you had such a vision at all is very surprising indeed."

Sora perked up a little bit when he heard that, but then hummed in thought for minute. He was wondering about why that part of his vision was from a first-person perspective as well, but he could not really think of any explanation, and from his standpoint, it did not really seem all that important. He still had something much more important to ask about right now, and anything else would have gotten them off track. "Did any of them really talk to you about their abilities while they were in Asgard?"

"Ventus and Terra were always fighting alongside myself, Lady Sif, Balder, or the Warriors Three, so we did not have much time to discuss the abilities they possessed. Master Aqua on the other hand did indeed share a few things about her abilities while she was there, including some knowledge on the ability you are struggling with," Thor admitted. He then crossed his arms for a minute as he recounted what he had been told. "Master Aqua explained to me that in order to truly master the use of a Keyblade Glider, one must be able to relax themselves, allow the sensation of the wind in their face to calm their minds, and let the freedom of flight take hold of them. More than that, they must be able to fully trust in their blade, and believe that it will safely guide them to whatever destination that they are traveling to, just as they would entrust it to guide them and keep them safe in battle."

The first part of that was somewhat easy for Sora to understand, after all, since he did not really have to worry about running across any supervillain attacks after the fight with Graviton, he knew just how great it felt to be flying in the air, when he was not falling from the sky after the Keyblade Glider had transformed back to normal on him in mid-flight. Maybe since it had happened so often now, he was still a little worried that it would happen, so that was what was giving him so much trouble. The other part though was where he became completely lost. "With the way you're talking, you almost make it sound like the Keyblade has a mind of its own. Like it can think and feel."

"Aye, that would actually be very correct in a way," Thor confirmed. "As I had mentioned previously at Iron Man's tower, the Keyblade chooses its wielder. Even when a master passes the power onto another, that person must still wait until the Keyblade that would be theirs chooses them. The ability to wield a Keyblade may be inside of a person, but it is the Keyblade itself that chooses who its wielder shall be, and when it shall appear before that wielder."

"So then, are you saying the Keyblade is alive or something," Sora asked, summoning out the aforementioned weapon so he could study a little in awe as he did.

"Perhaps not quite in the sense that one would normally think when saying that, but in its own way, yes, the Keyblade does possess a will and a light of its own that allows it to exist," Thor simplified as best as he could. "Your Keyblade is no more a mere tool than Mjolnir is simply just another hammer. It is as much your ally as I am and as the other Avengers are. Perhaps once you fully realize that for yourself, you will truly be able to use the Keyblade Glider to its full extent, or at least without it returning to its normal form while you are in mid-flight."

To anyone else, nothing Thor said would have made sense, but for some reason, Sora could see a bit of logic behind what the Asgardian was saying. In the past fights, there were a few times when Sora felt like the Keyblade was trying to lead him in another direction than the one he wanted to go, especially whenever they encountered the Heartless, and that sense seemed to become a little magnified when he was flying on his Keyblade Glider, like someone was trying to argue with him on which way he needed to go in order to reach his destination quickly. With that in mind, Sora could kind of see what Thor was getting at when he said that the Keyblade had a mind of its own, so maybe, he did need to do what Thor suggested and figure out a way to learn how to treat his Keyblade as more of an ally than a weapon. Already he could tell that was not going to be easy. After all, how do you condition yourself to think of something as anything but what it normally is? Then again, there was something about his Keyblade he still felt like he had not yet learned, and it was something that he felt that he should have known by now. The only question he had was just what was that thing? Maybe if he learned that answer, he would be able to do as Thor suggested, and learn to treat his Keyblade as an ally.

Sora was about to ask Thor some more questions, just to see if there was anything else that could help him, when JARVIS suddenly interrupted. _"Pardon me, sirs. There would appear to be something…wrong,"_ the computer butler announced to the two.

"What be thy concern, ethereal voice," Thor asked as he and Sora looked up to the ceiling, feeling that it was a bit appropriate when talking to JARVIS when they were not near one of his terminals.

 _"I have no physical evidence of this, but I believe the mansion's systems are being tampered with. I believe there is an intruder,"_ JARVIS explained.

"Any ideas where," Sora asked.

 _"No."_

"Well, that's no help," Sora muttered just as the sounds of heavy footsteps thundered from the hall, drawing his and Thor's attention to the jade giant that was passing by. "Hey Hulk. I thought you went to sleep already or something."

"Tried to. Couldn't," Hulk grunted, shortly.

If Sora was bothered by that reply, he just shrugged it off and moved on to his next question. "Well, did you happen to see anything strange anywhere in the mansion while you were walking around?"

"No, why," Hulk asked.

"The house believes we have been infiltrated," Thor informed him as he stood up and spun his hammer around his hand with an excited grin on his face. "If that is true, then let us patrol the grounds. Perhaps if we are lucky, we will find battle this night."

"You think we'll be lucky to find someone to fight," Sora muttered in wonder. If the intruder had gotten past Tony's defenses, then that likely meant it was either the Heartless or something else that was almost if not just as dangerous. Sora was not one to run from a fight if one needed to be fought, but he would have preferred to settle things without one if possible. Unfortunately, it seemed that there was going to be a fight soon enough, but not with their possible intruder.

Hulk had just been glaring at the two of them for a minute, until he finally growled and stomped up to Thor angrily and snapped, "I don't battle. I smash, and if you talk to me again, Hammer Face, I'll smash you!"

"Whoa, calm down, Hulk! Thor was just saying that we need your help to figure out if there really is an intruder or if JARVIS's scanners are just on the fritz or something," Sora attempted to placate, but his efforts only seemed to have the opposite effect.

"No one's talking to you, Key Boy, so unless you want to get smashed too, you'd better back off," Hulk snapped. Sora instantly recoiled a bit in surprise when Hulk snapped at him, but despite all appearances to the contrary, it was not just because of how Hulk had responded to his attempts at playing peacemaker. In reality, for some reason, Sora felt like he could sense something coming from the Hulk when he had turned his anger on him. Something…dark and evil. Sora had no idea how he was suddenly able to sense something like that, but at the moment, he was more concerned about the current situation to really care that much.

His concern only grew when Thor marched up Hulk again and said, "I suggest that whatever problem you have with me, you leave Friend Sora out of. He has done nothing to insult or harm you since your first meeting, so he is undeserving of any such insults. Though if you wish to test your mettle against an Asgardian, I am happy to oblige."

"Guys, seriously, calm down! How many times do we have to say 'we're on the same side' until you both get it and stop trying to fight each other like you're archenemies? Besides, we've got more important things to worry about than whatever grudge match you two have going on right now, so can you please try to get along until we find out if someone has broken into the mansion or not," Sora pleaded, but he was not entirely sure if his words were heard by either of the two, given how intensely they were glaring each other down, and how they had become so tensed up, almost as though they were ready for the other to make any kind of aggressive move against them.

After another minute or so, Hulk finally seemed to settle down a little, but not quite enough to be thinking straight, because the next thing he said was, "I don't need this. I don't need anyone. Tell the others I quit!"

With that, Hulk stomped out of both the room and the mansion, with Thor just glaring after him, while Sora only gaped until he started to go after the jade giant in an attempt to convince him to rethink that decision. He probably would have too if he had not been stopped short by hearing Thor say, "Good riddance."

That caused Sora to turn his own glare on Thor, and he was just about to tear into the Asgardian himself, despite whatever help the blonde had given him, when JARVIS announced that Pepper was calling the mansion. A second later, the portrait that hid the television screen lifted up to reveal the screen itself, and Pepper's face appeared on it, and she did not look too happy at the moment. _"JARVIS just told me the Hulk left. Thor, Sora, you guys have to bring him back,"_ Pepper informed the two, though one could detect a bit of begging in her tone.

"Why would we do that," Thor asked in disbelief. He saw no reason to bring someone as rude, insulting, and disrespectful as Hulk back.

Sora on the other hand was of a different mindset, and he proved it by giving an answer in Pepper's stead. "Because he's our friend, and if he's out there by himself, those guys from the other day might try to hurt him or arrest him like they had before. Besides, I can't explain how, but when Hulk was talking with us earlier, I…sensed something coming from him. It felt really bad too, which means he definitely needs our help."

 _"And that's all the more reason to bring him back, aside from what I was going to say,"_ Pepper nodded in thanks to Sora. She had no idea how the kid was able to do it, but from what she could tell, he had been able to get the Hulk to open up to him more than anyone else since joining the Avengers, so it was safe to say that Sora's feelings of friendship towards the Hulk were probably not one-sided. She then went on to add, _"Besides what Sora said, there's also the fact that he's_ our _responsibility, and with the mood he's in, he's liable to tear down this entire city. Please, go get him."_

"Don't worry, Pepper. I'll go get Hulk back, and figure out what's causing him to act the way that he is before you know it," Sora reassured Tony's redheaded assistant, and before anyone could say anything, the kid was out the door and chasing after the Hulk.

Pepper just stared after where Sora had run off to before looking back to Thor with a meaningful look, silently questioning if the Thunderer was really going to let Sora try and calm the Hulk down on his own, since there was a very likely chance that the kid could still get smashed by the big guy. It was barely even a minute before Thor conceded to the redhead's demands with a grimace, and he then stomped out of the house to follow after Sora. Though his pace was a bit more sedated since he was still not as eager to bring Hulk back as Sora was, and in his frustration, he completely missed the beautiful, blonde woman who suddenly appeared on the couch as he left, and how she was watching after them with a small, wicked smirk on her face.

* * *

It was really nothing new for people to be running away scared, screaming their heads off, and all because they just caught a glimpse of him walking in their direction. Honestly, you would think that after seeing so many _actual_ villains and monsters, people would be a little more accepting of someone like him, and that was without considering the fact that he had just helped save these ungrateful, puny little sheep from Graviton just the other day. Sure, he knew that he was not the only person to get that kind of criticism, as a nearby Daily Bugle newspaper proved by once again slandering Spider-Man in its headline, but still, the fact that it was happening to him right at this moment made it hard to remember that. Of course, the fact that Hulk was still in a very bad mood right now was not much help either, but honestly, he just did not care. These people acted like he was going to start smashing up the entire city at any second, which was starting to seem like a pretty good idea if it would get them to shut the hell up with all of their screaming, when all he wanted to do was just go for a little walk. He knew that this whole attempting to be a hero thing was a waste of time, and he had no idea why Banner was trying to convince him otherwise in the first place. Sure, it was more of a mystery as to why Banner was now saying the exact opposite of his usual spiel and going back on his encouragement to join the Avengers, but Hulk was just too mad to care about anything beyond getting away from all these puny idiots, and putting some distance between himself and the mansion.

His plan seemed pretty sound in his rage-clouded mind for the most part, at least until something unexpected happened. That something being the sounds of Sora's Keyblade Glider flying overhead, and since the brunette was most likely barely controlling it again, Hulk immediately turned his gaze skyward to see Sora riding after him on the flying motorcycle, wobbling in the air as he went. On the bright side though, it looked like he had slightly better control now, since he was clearly able to maintain a set speed as opposed just rocketing or slowly crawling in one specific direction or another, but that did not make his flight path any less stable. Still, Sora seemed insistent that he was able to handle this even after he saw he had Hulk's attention and that the jade giant was ready to leap up and catch him at any moment. "It's okay! I've got it! I've got it," Sora called down to Hulk, sounding a lot more sure than he likely was in reality, and definitely a lot more sure than Hulk was feeling about it. A second later, Hulk's concern was proven true when the bike vanished and returned to its Keyblade form once more, and Sora was once again dropping from the sky, all the while shouting, "I don't got it!"

Hulk instantly sprung up into the air and caught Sora for the second time today, and after setting the kid on the ground, watching as Sora got his breath back, Hulk just had to comment, "You need to find a better way of getting around, Spiky."

"Hey, I didn't…know for sure…how far you had gotten. And I was…positive that…I'd find you faster…from the air," Sora panted. When he was finally able to breathe normally again, he straightened up and looked Hulk dead in the eye and asked, "Are you okay though? You seem to be in a really bad mood. Well, more than you usually are."

Hulk just crossed his arms and turned away as he huffed, "Like you would know about how angry I usually am. You said it yourself that you've barely been in this world for a little more than a week."

"Well yeah, but I'd like to think that's enough time for me to figure out what qualifies as a normally pleasant mood for you. Besides, I can't help but think that there's something wrong with you, Hulk, and that's got me a little worried," Sora admitted. When Hulk just looked at him questioningly, the young man explained, "When you were shouting at me and Thor earlier, I think I sensed something weird coming from you. Don't ask me how I could sense anything, because I'm not entirely sure how I'm suddenly able to do stuff like that, but besides that, it was also the first time you seemed to really get so much as annoyed with me at all. You've been a lot friendlier with me than any of the others, so to suddenly see you turn around and act like a jerk to me is a little worrying."

Sora's words did hold a ring of truth to them, now that Hulk thought about it. Why had he gone off on Sora like that when the kid had not even done anything to offend him? More to the point, Hulk actually did find Sora to be the only one out of all the others that he did not mind being around, and like the kid was the only one he could trust. The fact that Sora was so quick to help him during the fight with Graviton and had done nothing but try to be friends with him ever since definitely helped quite a bit in addition to being from another world, but all the same, Hulk was not normally one to just shrug off that sort of kindness from others so easily. Why was it that he had suddenly done so to Sora barely more than five minutes ago? It did not make any sense. In that instant, Hulk wanted to apologize to the kid, something he never really did to anyone before, but before he could utter even a single syllable of the words, he suddenly felt something slink through his head while his vision turned slightly green for a minute, and he was right back to being extremely ticked off again.

"Get it through your head. We're not friends, I don't need anybody, and I'm not letting some puny little kid and Hammer Face tell me otherwise. Now get lost," Hulk growled as he started to move past Sora.

Sora was surprised by that sudden outburst. He really thought he was getting through to Hulk for a minute there. He could see it in Hulk's eyes that his words were having an effect, but then it seemed like someone had flipped a switch and Hulk was back to acting like he had been back at the mansion before he stormed out. Still, Sora was not one to call it quits just like that, and he immediately went after the big guy, as he called out, "But Hulk, what if SHIELD or those Hulkbuster guys come after you again? I don't want them to hurt you or lock you up for no reason."

"Sure you don't," Hulk huffed in disbelief. "No one wants to take down the big bad monster. The Avengers are no better than Ross or SHIELD, except they're honest about it. Now go home and leave me alone!"

Now Sora was positive that something was wrong. Where had all of these ideas come from? Sure, Thor had done a lot to antagonize Hulk today, but none of the others had done anything of the sort, so why was he suddenly shifting so much hatred onto the Avengers? Maybe all of those years being hunted had more of an effect on Hulk's trust than Sora originally thought, but he was still convinced that this was something much more than that. He was about to try something else when they both heard thunder crash above them, and Thor suddenly dropped down into Hulk's path. Just from one look at the Asgardian's face told Sora so many things, and none of them were going to be good for this situation.

"You are to come back to Avengers Mansion with us, Hulk," Thor ordered, proving Sora right in an instant. Hulk did not seem interested and just brushed past Thor, angering the blonde a little more, and prompting him to latch onto the Hulk's large arm as he growled, "'Twas not a request."

Sora just knew that was not going to end well, and he hated it even more that he was proven right, because Hulk's first and only response to Thor's actions was to punch the Asgardian as hard as he could. Said punch had sent Thor flying into a nearby construction site, and while it looked like the Asgardian was okay, from what Sora could tell at his current distance, it did not stop Thor from charging back in with his hammer raised. As the blonde passed by him, Sora could have sworn he saw an excited smirk on Thor's face, making the Keyblade wielder's worry sky-rocket right out of the atmosphere. He then watched as the two exchanged a few more blows, barely even paying attention to him as he tried to at least get their attention in the hopes of calming them down, until Hulk finally punched Thor all the way over to Central Park, leaping after him a second later.

Seeing this, Sora instantly knew one thing: he was going to need a _lot_ of help. With that in mind, it was no surprise that his hand immediately reached into his pocket and retrieved his ID card so that he could make the necessary call. "Hey Pepper, remember when you told me and Thor to bring Hulk back to the mansion," Sora started, getting a wary positive reply soon afterwards. "Weeeell…Let's just say that Thor's methods of persuasion kind of caused the two of them to start a _little_ bit of a brawl in the middle of Central Park."

 _"Are you serious,"_ Pepper asked in disbelief. _"What did he say to him?"_

"I think the more appropriate question would be 'what's wrong with Hulk?', because I'm now positive that there's something wrong with the big guy. If he was in his right state of mind, he would have taken his problems out in the training room with Thor like I had suggested they do earlier. I'm positive that someone or something has done something to him," Sora insisted. He did not want Pepper to know that he was only half-sure about the idea that Thor and Hulk would have tried to settle their grudge in the training room, but right now, a little fib was nowhere near as important as the fight happening right now.

 _"I'll let Tony know right away, but you need to do what you can to slow them down, or least make sure that it doesn't get out of the park,"_ Pepper informed Sora.

"You've got it, but I think Tony's going to get the idea as soon as I call the others," Sora nodded to Pepper, and with that, he switched over to the general frequency that the ID cards used, and uttered two simple words. "Avengers, assemble."

A few seconds later, Sora was in the air again, racing over to the park as fast as he could on his Keyblade Glider, but not before he heard Tony's voice muttering something over his communicator. _"I feel like that should've been my line."_

* * *

The fight between Thor and Hulk was certainly getting intense, but thankfully, no bystanders were around to get hurt, so the two were not hesitating to go all out for their own reasons. If you were to ask either of the two, they would both say that they were easily beating the other, but in reality, Hulk was the one who was easily winning at the moment, as evidenced by how he knocked Thor back several feet after tackling the Asgardian. The result of Hulk's attack ended up creating an impressive trench in the ground, while apparently knocking Thor out, and Hulk was just about to deliver a few more punches that make sure of that when Wasp suddenly flew right up to him from out of nowhere. She had been the closest one to the area when Sora made the call, and made a beeline for the park once she had fully learned about the situation, but that did not make seeing it any less worrying or confusing for her.

"Hulk, stop! Why are you doing this," Wasp pleaded, while Hulk just panted angrily.

"Yeah, pal. Just calm down and think for a minute. We're your friends; we're not attacking you," Sora added as he arrived on the scene. His arrival being on foot since he had actually just flown to the edge of the park, and he did not even want to try and kid himself into thinking that his Keyblade Glider would have stayed out for the entire flight over there. A second later though, Hulk was blown a few meters away by a hard right hook from Thor. "THOR," Sora irritably groaned as he nearly glared at the Asgardian.

"Well, I guess Thor is," Wasp quietly muttered.

"That's not helping, Jan," Sora reminded the size-changer, hoping that Hulk had not heard her.

Thankfully, it looked like Hulk was too mad to have heard or even cared what Janet had said, but the bad news was that Hulk was still really angry, and getting angrier by the minute, even as he stomped towards the three. It was just at the moment that Hulk had gotten halfway back over to the other three that Iron Man had flown in and tried to gently push Hulk back in an effort to calm the big guy down. "Hulk, Hulk! Stop this! You have to listen," Tony shouted.

 _"Alert: Unknown energy detected,"_ JARVIS suddenly announced. Tony barely even needed to glimpse at his scanners to know where said energy was coming from, and he needed even less time to figure out what that meant.

"Hulk, wait! There's something…" Iron Man started to say, but he never got the chance to finish. Hulk just grabbed him and slammed him into the ground, prompting Wasp to take action and start firing her stingers at the big guy in an attempt to get him to back off of the Avengers' leader. While Hulk was most likely not hurt by Wasp's attacks, they were still rapid enough to disorient him and make him back away from Tony, giving the billionaire hero the chance to stand up again and turn to his other two teammates who had just run over to him. "Looks like you were right about something effecting the Hulk, Sora," Tony informed the kid as he turned his gaze on both Sora's Keyblade and Thor's hammer. "There's some kind of weird energy around him. It's similar to what your Keyblade and Thor's hammer gives off, more so in the case of the latter though."

"Tis dark magic. The Hulk has been enchanted," Thor exclaimed the minute he heard Tony say that.

"Well that's not good. Not good at all," Sora pointed out. It was somewhat unnecessary, but Sora was too worried at the moment to care. The fact that someone was using Hulk to attack them was far from good news, and the only way that they could possibly knock him back to his sense was not really one that seemed any better.

Unfortunately, the bad news only got worse, because somehow, Hulk managed to finally shrug off Wasp's stinger barrage, and was now charging towards the other three once more. He would have succeeded in his charge too, had he not suddenly been stopped by Giant-Man grabbing him mid-charge. Once he was sure that he had the big guy secured in his grip, Hank looked down at the others and joked, "I'm guessing this isn't a team trust-building exercise."

Hank really should have kept his attention on Hulk instead of stopping to joke, because the next thing he knew, not only had Hulk gotten free, he was now flipping Giant-Man over until the size-changing scientist had crashed flat on his back. When Hank managed to sit up again, he suddenly found the Hulk landing on his head, and he had no doubt that the gamma hero was going to try and give him one serious headache in a minute, so he instantly raised his hands up to try and swat Hulk off. Before he could though, Sora suddenly shouted out, "No, wait! Something's controlling Hulk! He's not himself! Don't hurt him!"

Hank would have just thrown a disbelieving look in Sora's direction had he not realized that the boy was not just speaking to him. He was also addressing the Asgardian who came charging in to try and deliver a hard hammer blow to Hulk's head. Thor's efforts did not go as planned though, as the Hulk easily batted the blonde's attack aside, then grabbed him by his cape, and sent Thor flying away with a hard throw. Seeing all this unfold as he made his own charge, Iron Man just had to quip, "Yeah, I'm not so sure we're the ones you should be saying that too, Sora."

Tony's point was quickly proven when Hulk spun around and clothes-lined him down into some nearby trees, leaving him free to jump down onto Giant-Man's shoulder, and when Hank turned towards him, he was quickly met with the sucker punch that Hulk's fist delivered straight into his face. The result of Hulk's blow sent Hank crashing down to the ground, while Hulk just landed on Giant-Man's chest, ready to take advantage of the situation, until a voice cried out, "Get away from him!"

That angry shout was followed by another barrage of bio-stinger blasts, courtesy of Wasp, who was none too happy about that attack on the man she cared about so much, but her rage was still nothing compared to Hulk's. As such, this time, her barrage did barely anything more than the last one did, and unlike the last time, Hulk was able to shrug her strikes off much more easily, right to the point where he even clapped her hands around her, knocking Janet out, and leaving her completely vulnerable to any action that Hulk would take next as she lay in his open, left palm. At least that seemed to be the case, until Sora rushed in and slammed the Keyblade right into Hulk's head, making him drop Janet and turn away, more due to the unexpectedness of the attack than anything else. When he turned back to Sora, he just glared at the kid for a minute before he turned away again and angrily spat out a tooth.

Seeing Hulk do that and then thinking about what he had just done, Sora instantly paled a lot and found he could only mutter two words. "I'm sorry."

It came as no surprise that Hulk was not accepting apologies at the moment, and it was even less of a surprise that he charged Sora once more, fist raised and ready to strike down the Keyblade wielder. Sora on the other hand was still a little too freaked out to react fast enough or even properly, because all he was able to do was raise the Keyblade in front of him, defensively out of nothing but pure instinct. What Sora did not know was that somehow, when he had hit the Hulk, his Keyblade had weakened whatever spell was keeping the real Bruce Banner from communicating with Hulk, and after seeing Hulk charging the kid in the way that he was, Bruce finally managed to find the extra strength he needed to break free, releasing the Hulk from whatever mind control he was under at the very same moment. Thankfully, they had both broken free just in time too, because Hulk's fist had stopped short just a few inches shy of Sora's Keyblade when the big guy had broken free. When he looked up at Hulk again though, Sora could see a whole marathon of emotions running through the big guys eyes, with the most notable being shame, guilt, and sadness.

Sora would have said something to the big guy, but before he could, Hulk had turned and started jumping away as fast as he could, clearly unable to face the kid or any of the others right now, and Sora was sure that Hulk was thinking he and the others would see the big guy as a monster. He knew that was not true, as evidenced at how no one seemed to be showing any signs of being angry at the Hulk as they started coming around, but there was still the problem of convincing Hulk about that. Well that, and the large axe that suddenly struck Iron Man from out of nowhere startling everyone still present. "The Avengers. How unimpressive," a female voice mocked, drawing a glare of recognition from Thor while Sora and the others could only turn in shock to see who had spoken. When they spotted the person in question, they were all shocked to see a large, bald man with a goatee and strange armor standing over Iron Man, no doubt being the one who had attacked Tony, and a rather stunning woman with long blonde hair in a green outfit that left her shoulders bare smirking down at Tony with a glint in their eyes that could only be classified as evil. "You had better hope someone more capable chooses to avenge you," the woman finished.

A moment later, the woman had fired a blast of energy right into Thor, causing him to lose his grip on his hammer, and giving her the chance to encase it in a field that prevented Thor from retrieving it, much to the Asgardian's displeasure. Sora then took a chance and prepared to charge, only to be blasted back by the woman as well. Unlike Thor though, Sora's Keyblade did not get trapped in any magic fields, so he was able to keep a hold on his weapon, much to the blonde woman's scowling displeasure. "How dare you attack us, Enchantress," Thor accused the blonde woman as he stood up again.

"Wait, wait, wait. You know these people, Thor," Tony asked.

"Aye. The Enchantress and her Executioner. They are Asgardians," Thor revealed enlightening all of his teammates on the two's identities. He then returned his attention to the sorceress and asked, "Why have you come here, Amora?"

"Oh, you love Midgard so much, Thunderer, we thought we would come and see what all the fuss is about," Enchantress mockingly replied before turning another blast of magic on Thor, trapping him in an instant. She probably would have been able to focus on Thor completely had she not suddenly been struck from behind by the Avengers' resident Keyblade wielder, and she could not help but sneer a little at the sight of him before it became an expression of humor. "And apparently, our timing could not be better, seeing as the newest Keybearer now stands alongside you. Still, he is far from being even a smidgen as impressive as even the youngest of the last three."

Sora just growled a little in response before charging again, only to have his Keyblade intercepted by Executioner, before he was pushed back once more. Sora would have charged again, but his charge was cut off when a number of Shadows suddenly materialized around him, much to his surprise. "Not now," Sora groaned. "Why'd the Heartless have to show up here at this moment?"

"Well, I see you're well acquainted with my newest minions," Enchantress commented. "I suppose that will spare you of worrying about who it will be that will end whatever threat you could ever hope to pose, assuming you even pose one at all now."

Thor was now a bit confused as to how Enchantress had managed to find a way to command the Heartless, but given their current situation, worrying about such matters was of little consequence. His friends had no idea what they were up against, even as they charged into another battle once more.

* * *

Somewhere far from the battle that was taking place, Hulk had finally stopped in his running to sit down and brood over what had happened. He had really thought he was starting to change his situation for the better, and look what happened: he was used against the Avengers, some of the first people to stand up for him, and attacked Sora, the first person who had not hesitated to try and befriend him since that kid, Rick Jones. Maybe he was a monster and deserved to be locked up like everyone seemed to think. Unfortunately, Hulk was not going to be allowed to wallow in peace, because his mind's roommate was not going to have any of that. "You have to go back," Bruce Banner insisted. "Someone was manipulating you. They wanted you to fight the Avengers! You have to go back and make sure they're okay."

Hulk only growled in annoyance before he sighed in defeat and said, "Everything you said was true. I am a monster."

"It's only true if you let it be. Walk away now and it will be," Bruce told him. Seeing that was not helping him get through to Hulk, Banner went on to add, "From what I could tell, if no one else, Sora definitely believes in you. He never once showed any sign of being afraid of you when you were not being controlled, and he honestly wants to be your friend. He believes that you can be a force for good, just like I still do."

Hulk just sat there for a few more minutes, letting that sink in, until he finally made his decision on what he should do.

* * *

When you factored in the fatigue that the Avengers were feeling from the earlier fight with Hulk along with how they had been drawn right into another fight just seconds later, it seemed pretty needless to say that their battle with Enchantress, Executioner, and the Heartless was pretty one-sided, especially with both Iron Man and Thor unable to do anything to help. If his armor had not been so damaged by Executioner's sneak attack, Iron Man likely would have been able to help at least even the tide of the fight, but unfortunately, that was not the case, and his suit was now leaking energy faster than it could recharge. Somehow, Wasp, Giant-Man, and Sora had managed to hold their own for a decent while, but given how overwhelming the villains' numbers were, it was only a matter of time until they were pinned down like their other two teammates, Wasp being captured by the same magic that Enchantress used to imprison Thor and his hammer, Hank being pinned down beneath Executioner's boot with his mask showing a few burn marks from the earlier fireball that he had taken to the face from said Asgardian, and Sora just barely keeping the Heartless at bay with his Keyblade. Sure, Sora was still standing, but given how the Shadows were not giving him any openings to break through and help his friends, it did not seem like he was going to be able to stop Enchantress and Executioner from doing whatever they pleased.

Eventually, Sora's own tiredness got the best of him, and made him slip up on one of his attacks against the Heartless, and as a result, he was soon dog-piled beneath the Shadows that had surrounded him, barely even able to lift himself up as they kept him down. Say what you would about these things, but even though the Shadows were the most common and weakest of the Heartless, they were certainly strong little buggers when there was a large enough number of them, as Sora was currently finding out firsthand. "Foolish child," Enchantress mocked. "You may be one of the Keyblade's chosen, but you pose as much of a threat to me as a mortal infant." She then shrugged off the glare that Sora threw at her in response, and then turned to Executioner and said, "Finish off the Giant Man first. His head will make a good trophy on my wall."

"Hank," Wasp gasped, feeling a tear begin to fall from her eyes as she was forced to watch Executioner raise his axe in preparation to chop off Hank's head. Just before he could bring it down though, a loud roar suddenly echoed throughout the area around them, and a massive figure crashed down before the Executioner, knocking him away from Hank, and throwing Amora off her feet due to the shockwave of the impact. That same shockwave also served to destroy the Heartless that had dog-piled on Sora, and it allowed him the ability to stand up straight again, just in time to see the dust clear away and reveal who had just saved them.

When he saw just who their rescuer was, Sora instantly grinned as widely as he could, and said, "Thanks for that, Hulk."

Hulk said nothing in reply, but he did let out an enraged roar to show that he was very pissed off at the moment, and that scared the two, villainous Asgardians a little. Being so caught up in the Hulk's sudden return, Enchantress failed to realize that the spells she had cast to restrain Wasp and Thor had been weakened until it was already too late, and the two were ready to enter into the fray again. Thankfully, she did realize it just in time to avoid having her head lobbed off by Thor's hammer as it spun through the air and back into his waiting hand. The minute that Mjolnir was in his grasp, Thor immediately called down a powerful storm of lightning that seemed to light up the night sky like fireworks, seemingly as a show of intimidation. One which Enchantress barely even batted an eye at as she stood up and proclaimed, "I do not fear your lightning, Odinson. Your magic is nothing against mine."

"You are not my target, witch," Thor retorted with a small hint of a smirk. A minute after he said that, Iron Man stood up, his armor more than fully recharged thanks to Thor, and he immediately blasted into the air before Executioner could cleave him in two.

After firing off a quick repulsor blast at Executioner, Iron Man landed before the other Avengers who were still standing and shouted, "Take them down!"

Those three words were all the Avengers needed to charge in and throw everything they still had left at Enchantress, Executioner, and their remaining Heartless. While Iron Man and Thor focused all of their attention on Enchantress, Hulk and Wasp concentrated on Executioner, and Sora put most of his attention into destroying the Heartless, easily dusting the shadowy creatures with a single swipe of his Keyblade. Sure, the kid would assist the others wherever he could, but since he was not able to do that much to help against the two Asgardians he found those moments to be few and in-between. He really did wish he could help a little more though, as he saw Enchantress easily avoid Thor's strikes and Iron Man's repulsor blasts by teleporting all around the field as though she were the mole in a game of Whack-a-Mole, while Executioner managed to constantly freeze Hulk as the gamma hero was in mid-charge before batting him away with his axe.

It was at that point that Sora felt like there was nothing he wanted more right then than to make the two villains freeze in their tracks so that his friends could stand a chance, and then suddenly, without even realizing what he was doing, he suddenly found himself aiming the Keyblade at Executioner after spinning out of an attack on a Shadow, and releasing a blast of ice shards from the tip of his blade that caught Executioner off guard. This sudden development definitely came as a surprise to Sora, since he was not expecting or planning to do that at all, but given that it allowed Hulk the chance to knock Executioner out of the fight, he was certainly not complaining. Seeing that the larger villain was now out of the way and the last of the Heartless were destroyed, Sora made to either join Iron Man and Thor in fighting Enchantress or help Wasp with pulling Hank out of the lake after he had been knocked into it because of one of Amora's attacks on Thor, until he saw a faint aura of energy appear around Hulk's head, while the gamma giant turned towards the blonde woman.

"Destroy them all, my creature," Enchantress commanded, and for a moment, it looked like Hulk was going to do as she ordered, until he suddenly stopped in his tracks and seemed to struggle in an attempt to keep her out.

Seeing Hulk's distress, Sora immediately turned the Keyblade on Enchantress, intent on blasting her like he had Executioner, but he only succeeded in making himself look ridiculous as nothing happened. "Come on, Keyblade," Sora muttered to the thing as he gave it a few shakes, trying to make it work. "Hulk needs our help, so please just ice-blast Enchantress like before." Sora pointed the Keyblade's tip at Enchantress again, thinking with all his might about how he made it blast Executioner before, until finally, he could feel something happening through his grip on the handle. Barely a minute later, a small fireball erupted from the tip that struck Enchantress dead-center, breaking her concentration, and allowing Hulk to break free of her spell completely. "Not quite what I was going for, but that works," Sora smiled.

Hulk on the other hand, still had something very important that he needed to make sure that the witch understood as clear as day. "NO ONE CONTROLS THE HULK!"

The minute that Hulk had shouted that, he slammed his fists into the ground, creating a small earthquake that threw Enchantress off her feet once more, further disorienting her as extra insurance for when Iron Man and Thor flew up and blasted her with everything they had. When the dust settled, Enchantress was revealed to have been knocked out cold, despite not having a scratch on her, aside from a small scorch mark on her tunic where Sora's fire blast had hit her. Sora was just about to wonder aloud how he had even managed to do that, when they all suddenly heard Wasp shouting, "Watch out!"

Janet's warning had come a little too late though, because Iron Man, Thor, and Sora were all batted aside by Executioner, leaving the large Asgardian free to scoop up Enchantress and then retreat through a portal he formed with a swing of his axe. After a minute or so, when everyone was on their feet once again, Hank finally asked, "Does somebody want to explain what that was all about?"

Looking over to the scientist, everyone could tell that Hank had probably gotten the worst of the injuries, given how he was only able to stand upright thanks to Wasp at the moment, and while they were concerned about him, they did still want to know the answer to his question, and only one person present could adequately provide one. "Old enemies from Asgard," Thor solemnly revealed. "The Enchantress has ever found joy in causing me pain. Though I do not recall her ever possessing the ability to command the Heartless before."

"So then how come she was able to now," Sora asked.

"I do not know, but I fear the answer will not be to any of our liking," Thor admitted. He then smiled as he walked over to the jade giant of their group and said, "You have won the day, Friend Hulk. Truly, thou art a warrior to be reckoned with, for few can resist the Enchantress' charms."

"Not to mention we all would've been toast if you hadn't come back to save us, so thanks for that too," Sora added on with a smile, but Hulk did not seem like he wanted to hear any of it.

"Nothing's changed," Hulk growled as he brushed off Thor's hand of thanks. "You all thought I was a savage monster. You were gonna take me down."

"No we didn't," Sora protested. "It's like I was trying to tell you earlier, Hulk, we knew that something was wrong with you, and we just wanted to try and help break whatever was messing with your head."

Hulk just stared at Sora for a minute before he stomped away from the kid and said, "I'm done."

With that, he gave a mighty leap and took off into the night once more, intending to leave the Avengers for real this time. That did not mean he could not feel Sora and Wasp's sad expressions watching his back as he leapt away. Sora barely even registered as Tony suggested they all head back to the mansion to get some rest before they tried to follow after Hulk and convince him to come back, so instead of returning with the others, he just stayed where he was until he decided to go after Hulk on his own. Sure, he may have to struggle to catch up, but he needed to get Hulk to see reason and stay with them. His decision made, he summoned out his Keyblade, staring at it for a minute as he thought about what he had learned today regarding the mysterious, mystical weapon, and after a minute or so, he felt as though someone or something was whispering a strange combination of words into his ear, until he finally gasped a bit in surprise at realizing what that was, because it also helped him to finally realize what it was that he was missing about his Keyblade.

"Please…I need your help to get my friend back. No, to get our friend back, so let's go and get him together," Sora whispered to the Keyblade, and a moment later, he spoke two words that together, formed what he now knew was the name of his weapon. "Kingdom Key."

The minute Sora had uttered his Keyblade's name, he felt like some kind of road inside of him had just been completed and fully opened up to him, and a second later, the Keyblade Glider appeared before him, and Sora was flying off after the Hulk with absolutely no trouble at all. Realizing this, Sora could not help but grin in excitement, because he knew that this meant he had finally started to master this particular power, and that he was finally starting to better understand his Keyblade, just like Thor said he would be able too.

* * *

Hulk had not stopped jumping until he was several miles north of both New York and any other form of civilization. In fact, he only stopped when he had landed up in the Arctic Circle, and after walking through the snow for a short while, feeling the cold, freezing wind blowing against his green skin, Hulk finally allowed himself a chance to allow the events of the day catch up to him. Everything from Enchantress' manipulations, to his being forced to attack the Avengers, and even how the Avengers had fought against him. All of it just made him angrier and angrier by the minute, both at the other heroes and at himself, until finally, he just could not keep it in any longer, and he did the only thing he could really think of to do: he screamed as loudly as he could. The sound of Hulk's anguished roars echoed for miles, causing a few icebergs to come apart and collapse, while even the ice beneath his feet crackled until it fell away a little, creating a small crater beneath him.

Afterwards, Hulk was ready to move on again, until he heard a sound that he was starting to become very familiar with. He turned around looking towards the sky, and was not disappointed to find that Sora was in fact flying towards him as fast as the kid could, and much more easily than Hulk had ever seen the kid fly on his Keyblade Glider until now. That did not mean that Sora's landing was the smoothest, because instead of coming to a slow, steady stop, Sora ended up flying towards the ground far too fast, and crash-landed before Hulk once again. When the cloud of icy air that was stirred up from Sora's landing finally cleared, Hulk could see Sora lying on the ground, his Keyblade Glider already dismissed, and one of his hands rubbing his head as he groaned a little in pain. "Still need to work on the landings, but at least I'm not having any trouble flying with the thing now," Sora groaned as he stood up.

"What're you doing here, Spiky," Hulk demanded, though it was tinged with far more confusion than it was frustration.

Sora was soon on his feet again, brushing snow off his clothes before he smiled up at Hulk and said, "I'm here to get you to come back."

Hulk had to admit this kid was determined to get something done when he set his mind to it, but right now, that was a lot more annoying than it was impressive. "I told you I'm done. I'm not going to waste my time with the Avengers when I know that they won't ever trust me or see me as anything but a monster."

"Hulk, that might've been true for the others before the Breakout, but they all know better now. You helped us save New York, and when Enchantress and Executioner attacked, you came back and saved us. Besides, I never thought of you as a monster. If anything, I only think of you as my friend," Sora admitted, surprising Hulk a little.

"Just like that," Hulk asked, honestly surprised.

"Well, yeah, why not? And, as your friend, I don't want you to go off on your own like this, because I know it'll just get you into trouble with SHIELD and the Hulkbusters. Being with the Avengers is a great thing for both of us, so could you at least try and give it another chance? I know you didn't get off on the right foot with some of them, but after what happened, I think we've all learned that we can count on each other a lot, including you," Sora shrugged, his hands resting behind his head in his usual relaxed manner.

There was just no way around it, and Hulk knew it. The kid was right. If he left, Ross and SHIELD would be on his tail again, and he was sick and tired of always being hunted. At least with the Avengers, he could live a somewhat peaceful life that included three meals a day and a comfortable bed, and besides that, he did feel like he could use a few more friends. The fact that Sora already thought of him as one was definitely a bonus in Hulk's book, so it was only natural that he ended up sighing in defeat as he finally made his decision on what he should do. Before he could give voice to it though, Hulk noticed something shining in the ice, and immediately glanced over to see what it was. When he did see it, he had to blink and look again, only to gasp in shock at the realization that he was not seeing things, and he immediately ran over to get a closer look, with Sora hot on his heels. When he came to a stop before a section of ice, Hulk could only gaze on in awe until he finally found his voice again, and spoke in an awestruck way that Sora would not have expected from the big guy until now.

"Sora, call the other Avengers. Tell them they need to get up here, now," Hulk ordered.

The fact that Hulk had addressed him by his real name was enough to show Sora just how serious this was, never mind the tone of his voice, but Sora was still confused on two things. "Why, and why can't you call them?"

"I might've smashed my ID card earlier during the fight with Thor, and the reason why is because…we found him," Hulk explained, pointing to the ice.

Sora turned his attention to where Hulk was pointing, and gasped in surprise at what he saw. There in the ice, was a man who looked to be in his mid to late twenties at least, clad in a red, white, and blue suit with a large white star on his chest while red and white stripes circled his mid-torso and waist, red gloves and boots, and a brown utility belt. His head was covered by a blue mask that left only his eyes and the lower half of his face visible, and possessed a pair of white wings that extended up and back on the sides, and next to him, was a circular shield that had red and white stripes, a blue center, and a white star emblazoned on the center. Just from the look of this man, Sora could tell that whoever he was, he was most definitely a soldier, but judging by Hulk's expression, he was so much more than that, which quickly prompted Sora's next question.

"Just who is he," Sora asked.

Hulk's response was simple, yet it seemed to hold a great deal of weight that just resonated with what could almost be described as reverence and respect. "Captain America, the one true super soldier, and the man that many have called the world's first superhero."

Now Sora was left in awe, and he quickly whipped out his ID card so he could call the mansion and let them know what he had found. Like Hulk, the other Avengers all gained disbelieving looks of awe on their faces before Tony assured him that they would be up there as soon as possible. With the call made and nothing more to do than wait, Sora looked to the Hulk again, and asked a simple question that he hoped would keep Hulk from taking off on his own again until the others arrived. "So just who is Captain America?"

* * *

 ** _AN: Well, that all happened. For those of you who were pleading so much, yep, Sora is indeed convincing the Hulk to stay. Admit it, I had you guys worried that I was going to make Hulk leave again for a minute there didn't you? Well don't worry, the big guy's going to stick around and appear in the next chapter. After all, Sora makes it hard for anyone to really argue with him most of the time without them being a villain, Yen Sid, or some other person like that._**

 ** _Oh, and by the way, yeah, Enchantress can control the Heartless. What, did you think that someone like her wouldn't be able to or something? So guess what that means regarding what other Marvel villains can control the Heartless. Hint, hint for a little peak at the future. Speaking of which, the decision to have Sora sense her magic affecting Hulk was sort of split second, and before anyone goes off on me again, just think of it as a similar way to how Ezra could sense things through the Force without knowing it before he met Kanan and the others in Star Wars Rebels, so he's not really doing it of his own violation, and thinks that's really more of a gut-feeling type of thing. Also, regarding Sora's sudden use of ice and fire magic, again, his powers are not totally in control, so he's not entirely sure how he made it happen. Yes, he's gotten better at handling the Keyblade Glider, and part of that was because he's now learned that his Keyblade is named Kingdom Key, but he's still got a long way to go before he's able to do things like blasting bad guys with magic like you normally see him do in the games._**

 ** _Sora: Hey speaking of controlling the Keyblade Glider, how come you made it so that I only got a handle on it after I learned Kingdom Key's name? That seems a little cheap, doesn't it?_**

 ** _AN: Names are powerful things, Sora. They're not just something that gives one a sense of identity, but they can also hold great power. I'm sure if you've seen series or even an episode of a series that places emphasis on that sort of thing, you know what I mean by the kind of power a name can hold, and as previously mentioned, Sora did not even know that his Keyblade had a will of its own, let alone its own name, until just that point. That little talk with Thor proved to be something of a catalyst for his learning that knowledge, and really, if you don't know the name of your partner, you can't really say you can work well together. It just makes sense in my mind how that would allow Sora, who's still in the early days of his Keyblade wielding adventures, to suddenly gain a better handle on things like that._**

 ** _Also, sorry to disappoint, but that little tidbit that Thor gave Sora is really all the help that he's going to be in Sora's training with the Keyblade. If you were expecting him to suddenly be able to teach Sora more about magic, then you're sadly mistaken. Thankfully, the Marvel universe is not short on magic users that could teach him a few things, and one such magic-user will be appearing soon enough to help him with that. Think about your Marvel Heroes, and I'm sure you guys will be able to come up with one or two guesses as to who that might be._**

 ** _Oh yeah, for those of you who were hoping the Quinjets would help Sora get to other worlds, sorry to disappoint. Don't worry, Sora will be going to other worlds, but you'll soon see that he won't necessarily need a ship all of the time for such trips. More on that later, namely when we finally come to the first chapter where Sora travels to another world. Now then, as I'm sure we've all guessed both by the knowledge of Avengers EMH episode order/list, and by that little bit at the end, Cap's making his comeback next chapter, and if you want to know more, either you haven't seen this series, or you just haven't skipped all of this boring stuff before moving Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _Sora finds himself witnessing history being revived as Captain America returns to the world, but evil forces seem to be intent on soiling the captain's triumphant return, and Cap's own resolve to continue fighting the good fight may be more than just a little shaken after waking up in a world that has changed so much since his time. Can Sora help the captain find a reason to keep going, despite all that had changed, and just what is it that Zemo wants from the super soldier hero of this world's Second World War? Find out the answers to this and more in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	4. A Living Legend's Return

_**AN: Well, like the old saying goes, good things come to those who wait, so I must simply thank you all for waiting, because your patience is now being rewarded with the newest chapter of Hearts of Avengers!**_

 _ **[audience applause]**_

 _ **Yes, quite exciting huh? Not just because this is the chapter where we meet Captain America, but also because Hulk's still around and ready to do a little more avenging...Okay, so the first half is the part that's mostly true, right?**_

 _ **[audience laughter]**_

 _ **Hulk: Hey! You saying that I'm not as good as Flag-Man?!**_

 _ **AN: No, I'm just saying that Cap's got a larger following than you, or at least it seems that way a lot of times, but you can't blame me for thinking that, Big Guy. I mean, most of your movie appearances lately are only in Avengers movies or in movies featuring other characters as the lead star, like Thor: Ragnarok for example. (Great movie by the way, if you haven't seen it yet. Way awesome) It has been a while since we saw a solo movie for you.**_

 _ **Hulk:...Okay, yeah that's fair. I guess.**_

 _ **AN: So, let's answer some reviews now. For starters, let me give a general response to those of you who asked or just guessed. Yes, Doctor Strange will be involved with teaching Sora magic, and will basically be filling the role Merlin had in cannon for this story. Congrats to all of you who guessed that. You are all very smart.**_

 _ **Next to our old pal "Monkey D. Conan", I like the suggestion you made about Sora getting some type of helmet or semi-armor, and I'm actually thinking of incorporating something like that in here now. It'll likely show up next chapter so keep an eye out for that.**_

 ** _Now how about we have a chat with the guy who gave the idea for this little crossover, "Spiderfan626". I want to go ahead and warn you that the Masters of Evil won't be involved in all the worlds, but the reactions they have to certain Disney villains and worlds will most likely be very funny, or at least that's what I'm aiming for. Oh, and by the way, in case you or anyone else is wondering, I will be including some other worlds besides those of Disney movies in here, and I don't mean just places like Traverse Town, Hollow Bastion, and the like. No spoilers on that just yet though. You'll have to wait and see where else Sora and the Avengers will end up when we start traveling to other worlds._**

 ** _To "The Keeper of Worlds", glad you're liking those interactions. I was definitely aiming for that kind of relationship to build up between Sora and Wasp, and maybe between Hulk and Sora. To be honest though, I really just wanted Hulk to be able to know he could count Sora as a friend, something that Hulk has very few of, and as we all know, Sora has an uncanny talent for making friends almost everywhere he goes._**

 ** _Wasp: Doesn't that sound like how everyone says that Naruto can make his enemies turn good just by talking to them? Or how that should be called something silly like "Talk no Jutsu"?_**

 ** _AN: NO! No mentioning that anime here! There are already enough Naruto fanfictions, crossover and otherwise as there is! I don't want people getting ideas that I might be thinking of starting a Naruto story of my own!_**

 ** _Wasp: Sorry._**

 ** _AN: It's cool, Jan. Now, let's talk to our guest reviewer, "darthrevan-b312". Thanks for such extensive information on that particular OC of yours, but I'm afraid that I'm not planning on adding any OCs into this story, other than the OC I use so I can make cameo appearances in my stories. But you definitely do a great job throwing that together. You're definitely set for that RPG of yours if you can come up with all of that my friend._**

 ** _To our guest reviewer "KH summons", I'm not really planning to include summons in this story at the moment. Maybe I will, maybe I won't, but for now, I'm mainly focusing on how Sora can grow and learn about his abilities in this new continuity. Whether or not that will include the use of summon charms later on is still to be determined I'm afraid._**

 ** _And finally, in response to one last guest reviewer, one "AvengersFan24601", I do have some small plans on the X-Men showing up at some point in this story, but nothing entirely solid just yet. I do want them to appear though, so we'll see how well the plans pan out. As for the Disney Worlds we'll see here, I'm not going to say anything just yet. I want them to be a surprise until we see the previews for those little adventures._**

 ** _Sora: So is that all you wanted to say, or is there anything else we need to talk about?_**

 ** _AN: No, I think that covers it. Any remaining questions should be answered either in the main story or in the preview for next chapter, so let's get on with the show. Avengers, to the chapter!..._**

 _ **I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter IV**

While they waited for the other Avengers to arrive, Hulk regaled Sora with the tales of their frozen friend, and needless to say, the boy was hanging on every word, grinning from ear to ear the entire time. You could not blame the kid though. Even with Hulk's abilities in storytelling, the things that Sora learned about the first superhero of this world were nothing short of amazing. He started out as a twenty pound asthmatic who was determined to serve his country despite how his condition prevented him from doing and ended up becoming the first super soldier after volunteering for an experimental procedure that would accelerate the human body to its maximum potential, making him stronger and faster than most average people. Not only that, but from what Sora could tell, based on what Hulk explained, Captain America was more than just another soldier; he was also a good man who always did what he believed to be right, no matter what. In short, Captain America sounded like the ideal example of what it meant to be not just a hero, but a good person as well. It made Sora feel a little sad that he was not going to get a chance to really meet the captain. After all, what were the chances that he had survived that fall from a missile and into the icy waters below, let alone remaining inside of the ice for all of these years?

Apparently, they were very good odds, because just after the other Avengers arrived, Iron Man took a quick scan of the captain's body and confirmed that the super soldier was indeed alive, much to everyone's shock. After they had gotten over their shock, they all quickly worked to cut the captain's frozen body out of the larger ice, and then moved him onto the Quinjet so that they could fly him back to New York, with Hank and Tony monitoring the super soldier's condition the entire time. They got a little extra help about a quarter of the way back when Hulk, reluctantly decided to change into Bruce Banner, allowing Sora to meet the other side of his gamma powered friend at last, while freeing up more room on the jet, and allowing Banner to put some of his medicinal skills into practice. Seeing as their three friends had things under control in regards to the captain for the moment, Thor and Sora could only sit back and watch with baited breaths as they waited for the war hero to wake up, while Janet did the same as she flew the jet. At least, Sora thought that's what Janet was doing, until she revealed that thing was apparently on auto-pilot while throwing a pouting look in Iron Man's direction, much to Sora's amusement.

Sora got a bit of a small laugh out of Janet's attitude in regards to how she was not being allowed to fly the team's jet, but he did have one burning question on his mind that he just had to ask once he realized they were almost back at New York. "How come he's still alive after all this time," the Keybearer asked, pointing to the thawed out captain when he did.

"It was likely the Super Soldier Serum in his body," Banner theorized. "According to what is known about the effects of the serum on a subject's body, it is said to grant a really strong regenerative ability, which is also part of the reason why Captain America no longer has to worry about the medical afflictions that plagued him pre-serum. If that would be the case, then the captain's regenerative abilities had likely allowed him to stave off any hypothermia that would result from the extreme cold and instead just placed him into a state of suspended animation the entire time he was down there."

"…Uh, what," was the most intelligent response that Sora could come up with for that.

"The serum made Cap a fast healer, and that in turn made it so that instead of freezing to death, he just ended up sleeping for the last sixty years while being a Capsicle," Tony simplified into layman's terms for the kid.

"Oh, well why didn't you just say that," Sora asked Bruce.

"I did," Banner shortly replied.

"Well, I'm just going to enjoy the fact that we currently have someone here besides Hank who speaks English," Tony commented while giving his fellow scientist a pat on the shoulder, to which Bruce just smiled a little.

"Seriously, is that really what just happened," Sora whispered to Thor, but the Asgardian just shrugged in response. He understood mortal science terms about as well as his young comrade did, so one had to wonder why Sora was asking him of all people.

Just as they were about to continue the conversation, a soft groan reached everyone's ears, and everyone other than Wasp turned to see that the captain was beginning to stir a little. "This is incredible," Hank gasped as he approached the medical bed with Bruce moving past him to check a few things personally. "He's already waking up."

"Is his brain okay," Wasp asked, still doing her best to not take her eyes off of the sky before her. The Quinjet might have been on autopilot, but you still never know when that might change for some reason.

Wasp's question went unanswered for the most part as everyone gathered around the World War II hero, while Bruce elected himself to be the one who spoke to him first. "Captain," Bruce softly called. "Captain Rogers, are you all r…"

"BUCKY," Captain America shouted, and on reflex, he slammed his shield right into Bruce, knocking the gamma scientist into Hank and sending them both flying up into the cockpit, causing Wasp to turn around and see what was going on at last when they landed near her. He then caught Thor appearing to move towards him out of the corner of his eye, and immediately sent a kick at the Asgardian that nearly knocked the blonde into Sora had the boy not rolled out of the way at just the last second.

"Whoa, whoa, wait. Everything's…" Iron Man tried to say, but the captain did not seem to listen, as he just spun up off of the bed he was on and then slammed it into Tony, pinning the armored Avenger against the wall. After groaning a little from the impact, Tony looked up and attempted to reason with the soldier again. "Okay, Captain, you're safe. You're with friends."

"What are you? Some kind of HYDRA automaton," Captain America demanded, obviously not believing Tony at all.

"Listen! You've been frozen in ice for decades," Iron Man tried to explain.

"You're creative; I'll give you that," Captain America scoffed. "Where have you taken me? Where's Bucky?"

"Hey, just calm down for a minute," Sora called out after standing up straight again. "We're not HYDRA. We're the good guys, and we just saved your life a moment ago."

When the super soldier turned to Sora, he suddenly paused in what Sora could only describe as mild surprise. Tony would have to agree with that assessment, because from what he could tell of Captain America's expression, it almost seemed as though the man recognized Sora somehow. Although it was a bit more likely that the captain thought Sora was someone else that he knew from the Forties, or held a strong resemblance to such a person from what the super soldier could see, but whatever the case was, it seemed like Sora was starting to get the man to calm down a little bit. At least it seemed that way until Thor started to approach once again in an attempt to help placate the man.

"Please calm yourself, Captain. As the robot and Keyblade master say, you are among friends," Thor reassured the super soldier, placing a hand on his shoulder as a show of good intentions. Apparently, Captain America did not take it that way, because he immediately slammed his shield into the back of Thor's head, and then elbowed him in the gut before he threw the Asgardian over his shoulder right into Sora.

The two wielders of magic weapons both went flying right into the cockpit's main dashboard, and upon impact, a small explosion erupted from the controls, causing the whole jet to start sparking with electricity. There was no doubt that after said impact the autopilot was now offline, and the fact that the Quinjet was now taking a nosedive directly towards the water below them just proved that point. Wasp was quick to start pulling back on the controls while Sora tried to help once he had scrambled to his feet again, but they still caught notice of the captain opening the main hatch and jumping out of the jet almost seconds after they had gotten closer to the ground, much to some of the team's surprise, and to the horror of the others.

"Uh…was he wearing a parachute or anything like that just now," Sora asked, worriedly.

"No. No he wasn't," Iron Man almost chuckled in response. It was almost a chuckle because while it did remind him of some of the stories he heard about the captain as a kid, the fact that his jet was currently damaged and falling out of the sky with all of his team aboard was a little more pressing at the moment, especially if they did not want to crash down in an area where someone could get hurt.

* * *

In retrospect, Captain America would be the first to admit that jumping out of the plane full of strange people he did not know was probably not his best idea when he did not even know where he was going to land, or if he was even close to actual land, but at the moment, he was just grateful to see that there was a shore to pull himself up onto. Once he had climbed out of the water, he looked up to see the welcoming sight of Lady Liberty standing tall and proud in the sunlight, confirming that he was at least back on American soil again. That simple fact alone was reassuring to him, as it had been a long time since he was back in his home nation, and it would have brought a smile to his face had he not heard the sound of jets approaching him from above, and then looked up to see the man in gold and red armor from before slowly floating down towards him. He was not sure who these people were, but he was certainly not going to take any chances, hence the reason why he ignored the armored man's request for him to stand down and instead threw his shield directly at him. The vibranium disk easily struck its target, and in an impressive display of accuracy, ricocheted off the statue's torch and back into Captain America's waiting hand.

"Hey, we don't want to fight you! We're trying to help you," a woman's voice cried out from behind him, and Cap immediately spun around to the speaker, only to pause for a second once more when he saw that the woman in question was only about six inches tall at least, and possessed bright yellow wings that were buzzing in the air like a fly's. It was honestly much more baffling than her yellow and black attire, but it was not too different from some of the things that Cap had seen before, and much of it had come from only one place: HYDRA.

"What are you, lady? One of Zemo's experiments," Captain America demanded of the small woman.

"What? No, I'm…Well it's complicated," the miniature woman shrugged, and from her expression, Cap could see that she was at least being honest in what she said.

"Stand aside, Wasp," a loud voice suddenly boomed from the air, startling both soldier and small woman as the blonde man with a cape from before suddenly seemed to drop from the air with his hammer raised. Any protests from the now identified Wasp went ignored by the blonde, so Cap did not let it bother him either, as he simply raised his shield above him and to block the hammer's strike. What he did not expect was that a surge of lightning would ignite upon the hammer's impact with the shield, but a little light show was not going to distract Captain America from a fight, and he proved it by dropping down and sweeping the Viking-styled man's feet out from under him with a quick kick. Before he could press his advantage, Cap's ears caught the sound of something really big moving in the water, and he immediately turned to see the man in red and black rise up behind him, only now, the man was no longer wearing the silver helmet with antennas that he had before, and was easily matching the height of a skyscraper, if the super soldier had to make a comparison.

"Sir, we really need to get you to a hospital," the giant of a man cautiously advised the captain, and Cap was just going to brush it off once again so he could go on the attack, until the sounds of a crowd reached his ears, drawing his attention over to a ferry full of people who were staring at him in awe, some even going so far as to take pictures with both cameras and their phones. Aside from the fact that people had what looked to be mobile phones with cameras of all things, what came as more of a shock to the captain was that the boat was full of people from different races and nationalities that would likely have been trying to kill each other the last time he had checked. It was only natural that the captain would be looking at this odd sight in shock for a moment.

"Okay, enough," the armored man shouted as he flew over so he was once again floating before the captain, while the others started to regain their footing and circle him as well. Though the captain did have to wonder why the other two people he had noticed on the jet were not here with them, he kept his main focus on the fight happening right here and now. "You have to come with us. You don't understand. This is _not_ 1943."

"He is a warrior, Stark. He will not yield," the man that Captain America had heard Wasp call Thor stated.

"You've got that right, buddy," Captain America shouted as he threw his shield once again. This time Iron Man quickly dodged the shield on its initial path and then again after it rebounded off the side of the passing boat, but Thor was not so lucky to avoid the flying projectile. Iron Man then found himself getting tackled to the ground by Captain America and then reacted on impulse and tired to fire his repulsors at the super soldier. The captain quickly took advantage of that and redirected the blast into Giant-Man's face with his bare hands, sending Hank crashing down into the ocean, before he flung Iron Man around and into Thor. Seeing that he had effectively disabled his opponents for the moment, Cap tapped his shield with his boot and flipped it up onto his arm as he assumed a ready stance for anything else that would get thrown at him.

He was still not quite ready for the hit he received from behind, which nearly knocked him off his feet, and after he had regained his balance, he spun around to see that one of the absentees had now joined the fight, namely the young boy from before. When he first saw the kid, Captain America could have sworn for a moment that he was looking at Bucky, but that was mostly due to how his vision was still a little bit hazy after just waking up. When it started to clear up a little more, he then thought that the kid was someone else he knew from his previous battles, and there was certainly a resemblance between said soldier and this kid, but now that he got a good look at the kid, he could tell that this boy was indeed someone else, and not just because he was clearly younger than that soldier was. The boy's hair was much wilder and shaggier than Cap's old comrade had ever been, and he also remembered his ally wielding a weapon that was far more practical than the giant key that the boy was using appeared to be. Still, the fierce glare that the kid was throwing at the captain was very reminiscent of that same ally of his.

"How many times do my friends and I have to say that we're trying to help you before you actually listen to us," the kid asked.

"My apologies, son, but this soldier doesn't take help from HYDRA agents. He just takes them down," Captain America quickly replied, and he instantly rushed in to attack the kid. He was soon halted in his advance when a sharp sting suddenly hit him in his side, and he instantly turned to see Wasp aiming her hands at him with a guilty look on her face.

"Sorry, but Sora's right. We need you to listen for a moment," Wasp tried to reason with the captain.

Captain America did not listen to Wasp, and instead just waved his hand at her in an attempt to get her to back off. Normally, he would not attack a woman in such a way, but given that he believed she was an enemy soldier, he could only assume that it would be excusable. Apparently, his attack did not sit well with this boy named Sora, because the kid was charging him once again, with his giant key ready to strike. The key quickly collided with Cap's vibranium shield, releasing both a loud clang and a powerful shockwave when it did, instantly telling the captain that there was more to this boy's odd weapon than what he had assumed at first glance. He shook it off though, and then shoved the boy back and off his feet, but before he could charge the kid, Wasp zapped him once again with her stingers, trying to keep him from hurting Sora. All it really did though was start annoying Captain America, and he proved it when he turned to try and take down Wasp once again.

Seeing this, Sora scrambled up again and aimed his giant key forward, likely not realizing that it was glowing a little at the tip while he shouted, "Would you please just calm down already and stop!"

Captain America was not sure what had happened then, but the next thing he knew, he heard what sounded like a clock chime and was completely frozen in his tracks. There was no sign of anything that could be holding him down, but for some reason, he was just unable to move anything other than his eyes and mouth. "What…what just happened? What did you do to me," Captain America demanded as best as he could, his eyes turning towards the kid when he did, figuring that only he could know the answer.

Sora just looked between the captain and his Keyblade for a minute in awe before he replied, "I'm honestly trying to figure that out myself. This thing didn't come with any kind of instruction manual or anything."

"Either way, maybe now you'll listen to us," Wasp suggested.

"Like I said before, Miss, this soldier doesn't listen to HYDRA agents. He just takes them down," the captain retorted, still keeping up his determined glare despite his current situation.

"Fine, don't listen just look," Wasp sighed irritably, and she immediately flew up a flight of nearby stairs. When she realized that Cap was not following her, she gave herself a mental slap for her moment of forgetfulness and turned to Sora and asked, "Uh, do you think you can unfreeze him now?"

"I'm not even sure how I did it in the first place," Sora protested, much to both of the other two's irritation and disappointment. "Hey, it's not like I can just wave the Keyblade and say reverse or undo, or something."

Apparently, that was all he had to do, because while he was complaining, Sora had failed to realize that the Keyblade's tip had flashed for a minute, and whatever was holding the captain was instantly released, granting him full range of movement once again. When he noticed this, Sora just smiled sheepishly and then dashed after Janet as she flew up to where she had been heading before with the captain hot on their trail. When he laid eyes on what Janet was trying to show the captain, Sora could only stare in awe at the sight before him, and from the gasp of shock he heard come from behind him, he had to assume that Captain America was just as if not more shocked than he was. There, standing proudly near the base of the Statue of Liberty, was a bronze statue of Captain America and his young partner Bucky, and at the base of the statue was an inscription that read "In honored memory of Captain America and Bucky".

Seeing this memorial statue of himself and Bucky finally clued Captain America in as to what the others were trying to tell him, but he was not so sure that he was quite willing to believe it. Still, the evidence was hard to deny, so when he heard the other strange people that Sora and Wasp were allied with approaching him, he simply turned around to face them with all reason to try and fight them now gone from his system. That did not make it any less shocking for him when the armored man's helmet opened up to reveal the face of a man who looked a lot like Howard Stark, but he still listened with rapt attention as he spoke. "You've been gone a long time, Captain. Welcome back."

Captain America just looked between this man who looked so much like Howard Stark, his friends, and the statue for a minute before he finally nodded in thanks, and then allowed himself to collapse in exhaustion, all fatigue he felt having finally caught up to him now that the adrenaline had run its course. Despite himself, he could feel a small smile reach his face as he felt gentle but strong arms carry him back onto the plane he was flying in before while these strange people talked about bringing him back to some mansion, because for the moment, he was just glad to be home again.

* * *

Somewhere far from Ellis Island and New York, a certain man dressed in a purple outfit that covered him from head to toe, with a sword strapped to his belt was descending down into the lab of the man that many considered to be HYDRA's best scientist: Doctor Arnim Zola. This man was Baron Zemo, former leader of HYDRA before Baron Strucker, and Zemo had come planning to take back HYDRA from the, as he had put it, "child in an old man's body", until he had learned of some startling news: Captain America was alive. Ever since the war, Zemo had held a burning hatred of the captain, especially since he blamed Rogers for how he was exposed to Virus X. Yes, it did give him the excuse to evolve his body so that he could live longer, but at the same time, he now required various treatments to ensure that he would live until a cure was found. Ever since then, he had sworn he would get his revenge on the captain, but it had long seemed that the Red Skull had beaten him to the punch. Until now, and Zemo knew that Zola would have just the solution he would need to getting his revenge, so he decided that Wolfgang could have HYDRA. All that mattered to him now was destroying Captain America, and all he needed for that was Arnim Zola.

At last, Zemo arrived at his destination, and he swiftly entered the darkened laboratory, paying little mind to the strange machines in the room as he passed them, or even the odd creatures inside some of the tubes. They did catch his attention eventually though when one creature in particular suddenly shot out at him from behind, forcing Zemo to draw his sword and sever the tentacle in two with one, fell swipe. Zemo's attacker then floated out into the light, revealing it to be a strange, dough-like creature with two skinny arms and a large mouth and eyes. The beast immediately began roaring at Zemo for his attack, even as the severed arms regrew, but Zemo just glared in response until a synthesized voice suddenly called out from the shadows, "Enough, my pet."

Turning to the speaker, both baron and creature looked on as a man in a large orange suit with a camera where his head should be, and his face being shown in a screen on his stomach stepped forward into the light, which Zemo instantly identified as Arnim Zola himself, and from the grin on his TV screen face, Zola did not look half as apologetic as he attempted to make himself out to be when he addressed the baron. "You'll have to excuse Doughboy. He is very excited to see that you also escaped SHIELD's prisons during the recent exodus."

Zemo put aside any lack of sincerity that Zola may have had and simply placed his sword back in its scabbard before brushing Doughboy's hand off his shoulder as he addressed the scientist. "I have news, Arnim. But first…"

"Yes," Zola replied, and he then led Zemo to a bed beneath a large machine. The moment Zemo had lied back on the table and it was lowered to a resting position, Zola walked over to the machine's controls saying, "It is good you escaped when you did. Your last treatment has almost worn off."

The machine was then activated, and a beam passed over Zemo as Zola continued what he was saying before. "We did too good a job on Virus X, my old friend. Sadly, I still have found no cure. Our formula is the only thing keeping it from…"

"Captain America is alive," Zemo interrupted as the procedure came to an end.

Zola's eyes widened as he proclaimed, "Amazing! Erskine's super soldier serum must be responsible. Had we ever obtained a DNA sample from the captain, we could've created an army of super soldiers." Zola's camera eye then turned to Zemo as the masked man stood up, and he quickly added, "And of course, cured you, Baron. I still believe the serum will reverse the effects of the virus."

"You need a DNA sample? I will bring you Captain America's head," Zemo told Zola confidently. "But there is a problem: the Captain it seems has found powerful allies."

"I am the finest bioengineer on the planet, and over the decades I have learned one thing," Zola informed Zemo confidently. He then gestured to a specific glass tube that held what Zemo could only describe as a larger version of Doughboy, and yet was clearly more powerful than Zola's little pet, and declared, "Every problem has a solution."

Seeing this creature made Zemo smirk under his mask in anticipation for what would be coming for Captain America, until he realized that he, Zola, and Doughboy were not the only other ones in the room besides this creature. Reaching this realization, Zemo instantly spun towards the intruder and drew his sword again as he demanded, "Who's there? Show yourself!"

"I am merely a friend who has coming seeking the door to this world," the stranger replied in a deep, cold voice that almost sent shivers up Zemo's spine, and if he still had one, Zola was sure that he would have felt a shiver or two as well. The stranger then stepped out into better light, but still remained at a point where his face was hidden by the shadows of the room. Not that it was all that necessary, since the brown cloak he wore kept his face very well hidden. Aside from that though, the only thing that Zemo could tell about this person was that he was rather short and a bit hunched over. "This world has been connected. Tied to the darkness…Soon to be completely eclipsed and likely would have by now, were it not for the Keyblade's chosen one."

"What manner of riddles are you spouting," Zemo demanded, honestly confused by everything that this stranger had just said.

"I am referring to one of your enemy's new allies. He may be the youngest, but make no mistake, he holds the potential to be the greatest threat of them all," the stranger explained. "If he were to interfere, your plan will most certainly fail."

Now Zemo was intrigued. He had seen some news footage of the boy with spiky hair, which he had heard many believed to be the youngest of the Avengers, and at first he thought little of the child. However, if this stranger was to be believed, then he may prove to be more of a problem than he originally thought. More importantly, he had a feeling that this person would not have appeared here if he did not have something to offer him that could counter this problem. "Go on," Zemo prompted as he lowered his blade, but still keeping it ready just in case.

"I can grant you temporary use of creatures that will best keep the Keyblade's chosen at bay, and I can also infuse your scientist's beast with the same power that they possess to keep these other heroes from interfering with you, but only if you desire such dark powers," the stranger revealed.

"If it will help me to destroy Captain America and obtain Arnim's DNA sample, then I most certainly do. However, I am not a fool, so I must ask what the payment for this is," Zemo questioned.

"Nothing for the moment, but I will require your assistance in a much larger manner later on, should you fail in your objective or not," the stranger shrugged. He then waved one of his hands towards the creature in the tube, and a haze of darkness was soon washing over the beast. When the haze settled, the stranger then waved his hand towards Zemo, and the same haze briefly appeared over the masked daemon for a moment just before a number of odd looking creatures in knight armor appeared around him. "The power to command these Heartless is now yours to wield as you please for now. One of my agents will be in touch with you later on, Baron."

"Just a moment," Zola demanded as the man turned to leave. "Who are you?"

The stranger paused for but a few seconds before he looked back and replied, "My name is of no importance, for now at least."

With that, the stranger disappeared into the shadows, almost as though he were a ghost. If this set off any warning bells for Zemo or Zola, they either did not care or just ignored them completely. After all, whoever this person was, he had just given them something that would ensure they would get what they wanted from Captain America, and that the Avengers would be of little concern to them when they attacked. With such abilities and resources at their disposal, one had to wonder what more could a villain ask for, but that did not mean they were able to shake the dark feelings that they somehow knew were just rolling off of this stranger. It was hard to put into words, but if they had to, they would say that it was almost like he was an embodiment of darkness itself.

* * *

Sora was honestly a bit surprised that Captain America had woken up again by the time they were halfway back to the mansion, and as a result, he found himself glancing back at the super soldier every few seconds or so. He knew that it was probably rude and that the man had likely noticed by now, but Sora could not help it for two reasons. For starters, Captain America sounded like everything Sora believed a hero should be and he looked like it too. It took a great deal of skill to be able to handle powerful opponents like the Avengers with nothing more than your bare hands and a shield, which Sora noticed was not the least bit damaged even after taking a blow from Mjolnir, surprisingly. On the other hand, it was for that exact same reason that Sora was a little nervous. The man had single-handedly defeated nearly the entire team, save for Hulk, all on his own without any real special powers, and he did it in the most strategic of ways possible, and it was all just moments after being thawed out of the ice. In fact, he was sure if he had not somehow managed to freeze the captain in place like he had, then Cap would likely have figured out a way to beat him too. He supposed there were a few benefits to not knowing the full extent of what he could do with the Keyblade, but all the same, he was especially glad that the captain was one of the good guys.

While Captain America did have his attention though, Sora's gaze would occasionally wander to another of the jet's occupants: Bruce Banner. Sure, he had heard a bit about Hulk's alter ego, but he had never actually seen or met the man until now, and he was honestly a little curious about Bruce. Ever since Hulk had turned into the man, Bruce had shown absolutely no indication of being anything like the Hulk right to the point where Sora was sure that he would never have believed that Banner was the jade giant if he had not already known beforehand. After another moment of pondering and staring, while listening to Hank break the news to Captain America about what had happened in his absence as delicately as possible, Sora finally felt like he could not take it any longer and decided to approach the gamma scientist so he could talk with him. Sure, he might have looked a little busy with monitoring the medical scanners that were helping to make sure that Cap was still in good physical condition, but Sora could not wait any longer before asking him about these things.

"Hey Doctor Banner," Sora greeted once he was next to the scientist, drawing Bruce's attention from the tablet he was working on.

When he saw the young Keyblade wielder, Bruce raised an eyebrow in curiosity for a minute before he finally smiled and extended a hand to the kid as he said, "Oh right, I suppose we haven't really had a chance to get properly acquainted before now. It's nice to finally meet you in person, Sora, and please, call me Bruce."

Sora glanced between the offered hand and the man for a minute before he finally just accepted the handshake with an easy going smile. That did not stop him from asking the question that was now burning in his mind. "What do you mean when you say it's nice to finally meet me in person? I mean, we've already talked with each other a lot, haven't we?"

"No, you've only talked with Hulk. This is the first time you and I have ever interacted with each other," Bruce explained, but he could tell that Sora was still a little lost.

"You make it sound like you guys are two different people," Sora commented.

"Because we are," Bruce explained. "The Hulk and I may share a body, but we're not the same person. After the accident that first changed me and gave birth to the Hulk, whenever I got angry, I would turn into the Hulk and I would only change back after he calmed down." He then paused for a minute to consider something and then asked, "Do you have the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on your world?"

"Yeah," Sora nodded, knowing exactly what Bruce was talking about.

"Well, it's basically the same thing with me and the Hulk. Of course, in the beginning, Hulk was nothing but blind rage and an urge to attack anything and everything near him, and while he was doing that, I would black out. I would sometimes get images and memory flashes of what happened when Hulk was in control, but beyond that, nothing. It was so bad that I actually agreed with everyone else on the idea that the Hulk was a monster that should be contained, but unlike the military, I just wanted to find a cure and destroy the Hulk before he caused any more damage."

"What changed," Sora asked. He was honestly intrigued by this whole story, and while he was not exactly happy about the idea that Bruce wanted to get rid of Hulk like everyone else was, he could tell that the man had a different opinion now because of how he talked about the jade giant.

"I realized that I did have some bit of consciousness inside of Hulk's mind. After the first time we defeated Abomination, Hulk and I left any form of civilization, and I then made my way to a safe house I had set up after I started running from Ross and SHIELD so I could practice various ways of trying to communicate with Hulk while he's in control."

"And that's how you knew who I am," Sora asked, just to make sure he understood correctly.

"Exactly," Bruce nodded. "Once I figured out how to communicate with Hulk, I was able to talk to him and influence him in a way. Thanks to that, I started to realize that the Hulk could be more than the monster people believe him to be, and that he could be a force for good, and that definitely helped me in convincing Hulk to come and help you all fight Graviton."

That surprised Sora a little bit, and he did not hesitate to put his shock into words. "How come Hulk never told us that?"

Bruce actually laughed a bit at that question as he said, "Well to be honest, Hulk doesn't like me very much. Then again, he doesn't like anyone, period. At least, until he met you. I can definitely say with the utmost confidence that you are the first person that Hulk has ever really considered to be a true friend, at least, outside of this one kid by the name of Rick that we met a while back."

The Keyblade wielder smiled upon hearing that, but he was still confused by something. "If you change back after Hulk calms down enough, how come we haven't seen you until now?"

Sora may not have been aware of this, but most of the others were listening in on this as well, save for Captain America, who would not really have understood anything that was being said at the moment even if he was paying that much attention. To be fair though, he was trying to process the fact that he had missed the last sixty years of the world going by while he was frozen in ice, along with everything that had happened according to Hank, so it was forgivable for him to not really be paying too much attention to the topic that Sora and Bruce were discussing. Everyone else on the other hand was very much curious for their own reasons, but whether it was because they wanted to know simply for the sake of knowing, or because they wanted to talk and work with Banner personally, it did not matter, because they were all still willing to listen and learn.

Bruce sat in silence for a minute before he finally sighed and revealed, "In order to get Hulk to help you guys out, I had to make a deal with him. If Hulk helped stop Graviton, then he would get full control of our body; stay the Hulk and not turn back into Banner."

"Well that doesn't seem very fair," Sora protested. He was glad that Hulk was willing to help out, and he could understand why Hulk would want to be the one in control most of the time, but never letting Bruce out again, especially if he was his own person as well did not seem like a very fair trade in Sora's opinion.

"Maybe not, but I think it was a fair trade, all things considered," Bruce admitted. "For the longest time, I figured I was always working in a way where I always had at least one hand on the wheel, but from Hulk's perspective, I guess he figured I was just locking him in the trunk until I needed to let him out, so it's only fair that the reverse happen eventually."

"But still, he shouldn't just keep you locked up inside forever. After all, you can help a lot of people as Bruce Banner, and sometimes in ways that are better than the Hulk can," Sora continued to argue.

Bruce may not have said anything about it, but he could also hear Hulk inside of him while he was in control, and from what he could tell it seemed that the gamma hero actually understood what Sora was saying. Even now, Hulk was humming in thought about something that no doubt had to do with what Sora was saying to him, and that made Bruce smile a little more. This kid was definitely something else, and if what Thor said about the boy's weapon was true, then Bruce could see why the Keyblade had chosen Sora to be its wielder. This was a sentiment that was shared by the rest of the Avengers who had heard the exchange as well, and they had to wonder if Sora would be able to do something for Captain America as well, because there was no doubt that the super soldier was likely going to need a bit of encouragement after he had learned everything he needed to learn.

Apparently the time for that was now, because the Quinjet had just landed in the mansion's hangar right when Hank had finished filling Captain America in on everything he had missed. Out of all that information though, there were only a few details that Cap was concerned with, and those were the ones that pertained the most to his time and the war that was taking place then. "So we…won the war," Captain America asked.

"Thanks in part to you," Tony confirmed as he opened his face mask once again.

"So HYDRA's gone?"

"Uh…it's complicated," Tony told the captain. They had not really gotten around to explaining how HYDRA had changed over the years mostly because they were not sure how to break that particular news to him. After all, HYDRA was Cap's main enemy for most of the war, so hearing that it was still around and now a full-blown terrorist organization would probably have not gone over well with the super soldier. Tony put that aside for the moment, and instead focused on a more important matter. "I've had JARVIS prepare a room for you until we get everything sorted out. You've been gone a long time, Cap."

 _"Welcome back, sir,"_ JARIVS added, getting Cap to pause in surprise and look around for the source of the AI's voice.

"The building has its own voice. Tis very disconcerting," Thor explained as he walked past.

"Yeah…" Captain America replied with a slow nod. After all, things like AIs were the stuff of science-fiction in his day.

"If it makes you feel any better, I was pretty surprised too the first time I heard JARVIS speak," Sora reassured the captain. It did not seem to raise the super soldier's spirits by that much, but Sora could have sworn that he saw the corners of Cap's lips move upwards by a tiny smidge as they continued on into the Assembly Hall.

"There's something I have to show you," Tony told the captain as he brought up an image of a news article that was titled Captain America Fallen on the holographic screen. "My dad used to tell me stories about you when I was a kid. You were an inspiration to me."

Cap's eyes had widened the moment he saw the image of the news article appear from the table, but beyond that, his expression remained neutral. No one was going to kid themselves into thinking that he was not upset by seeing his own obituary, because they all knew that it could not have been easy, so it came as little surprise that Captain America was putting on a brave face at the moment as he studied the article. Out of all of them though, Sora felt like he was the one who could most relate to what the captain was feeling. At least Cap had something to remind him that his world existed. All Sora had of Destiny Islands were the destroyed clothes that he had been wearing when he first arrived on this world.

"Hmm. That's…some poor reporting," Captain America finally hummed after a minute. His face then drew a contemplative and hopeful look as he muttered, "But if I survived, maybe Bucky…"

Tony knew where the super soldier was going with that line of though, and as much as he hated to do it, he knew he would have to break the news to his father's old friend. So, he placed a gentle hand on the captain's shoulder and sadly said, "I'm sorry, Cap. Every kid in school learns that Captain America and Bucky sacrificed their lives to stop the Red Skull. It's a miracle you survived."

He knew that Tony was trying to be reassuring and maybe cheer him up a little, but that did not make this news any less disheartening for Captain America. He appreciated the effort, but it did not change the facts that he saw before him. "Bucky's gone," Cap sighed. "Everyone I ever knew, my whole world…It's all gone, isn't it?"

No one said a word in reply. What could they really say? Everything that Captain America had just said was right, and they knew it to be true. You could see it in the sad expressions on their faces as they stared at him, and that was all Captain America needed to see to confirm it. Seeing that, Cap removed his shield from his arm, placed it down on the table, and walked away sadly to the room that JARVIS had prepared for him. Janet was about to go after him when Hank placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Give him some time, Jan."

Sora was not so sure that was really the best thing to do right now. He knew that what he needed after coming here was not just to be given time and space, but rather someone who could be there as a friend, and Janet had done just that for him. Now, it was his turn to help out a new friend, and he did not hesitate to take that turn and go after Captain America so he could try and talk to him. Of course, that meant he had just missed JARVIS reporting a monster attack on Ellis Island along with Tony leading the rest of the Avengers in the charge out there, save for Wasp, who was still looking at the door that Captain America and Sora had both just left through.

* * *

It seemed that Ellis Island was a bit more popular than usual today, but more so in the way of being the site of a major event like the monster attack that was taking place right this second. Everyone was running scared and screaming in fear as the massive blob monsters rose up from the water and began to cover the island, and while the timely arrival of the Avengers did seem to slow the beat's advance, it was only just barely, so you could see why most people were still panicking in spite of the heroes' arrival. As he flew over the area from atop one of his ants, Ant-Man could not help but marvel a little at the being that was currently attacking. Blame the scientist in him for finding such a creature fascinating. "Amazing," Hank gasped. "They appear to be some kind of man made biological life form."

"You say man made as if you were proud of this," Thor grunted as he tried to pull himself and his hammer free of the beasts, having gotten caught in their sticky clutches after he had taken a swing at them.

Eventually, Thor was starting to get pulled further in, and that was all Iron Man needed to try and take action to assist the Asgardian. His first course being his usual one of firing his repulsors at the monster, and unfortunately, all it seemed to do was make a small hole in the head of one of the monsters which quickly sealed up before the creature grew bigger at a very rapid pace. "Guys, my repulsors aren't affecting them," Iron Man informed his teammates as he tried to fly away from the creature when it suddenly transformed into a massive wave of goo that threatened to swallow him. "If anyone has got any ideas here, now's the…"

Iron Man's request was cut short when he swallowed by the gelatinous beast's wave, and he likely would have gone completely under had Hulk not suddenly dropped down on the beast, grabbed the armored Avenger by the arm, and pulled Tony free with one pull. He then let out a massive roar before he clapped his hands together and created a shockwave that blasted much of the monsters off of Thor long enough for the Asgardian to break free and take to the skies again. Hulk would have done more, but he suddenly found his leg caught in the grasp of the globs. This was soon noticed by Hank, who went Giant-Man to try and pull Hulk out, and while he was successful in getting the jade giant to safety, it did not stop him from suddenly being swallowed up by another wave of goo, courtesy of the monsters.

Hulk was about to try and get these things off of the size-changing scientist when he heard someone crying out for help, and it did not sound like any of the Avengers. He immediately turned around and saw that a small number of kids had all been backed up against the wall, surrounded by the glob monsters on all sides, and all panicking at the fact that they had no way out. Hulk may have been considered a monster by most of the world, but if there was one thing he hated more than anything, it was seeing kids getting picked on, so it was only natural that he leapt over to where the group was to help, making sure to land in a way so that he would be sending out a shockwave that would push the blobs back. Once he had done that, he quickly scooped the kids up in his arms and leapt up to an area on higher ground where the other civilians had taken shelter. When he landed in front of the shelter, Hulk could already hear a lot of people start to panic at the sight of him, but he ignored it in favor of setting the kids down as gently as he could before turning to get back into the fight.

Just when he was about to leap away, Hulk paused when he heard one of the kids say, "Thanks for saving us, Mister Hulk!"

Hulk instantly turned around to see that one of the boys in the group was smiling and waving happily at him, with his friends doing the same as well, and he was honestly surprised by this. Did that kid actually just say thanks to _him_? He must have, because the other kids were shouting similar words of gratitude as well while they kept waving. It was probably the most unbelievable thing that Hulk had ever seen or heard in his entire life, and if he were being honest, he kind of liked it. It definitely showed when he gave the kids as gentle a smile as he could muster and nodded while saying, "You just stay in there where it's safe, and try not to get caught up in anymore monster attacks."

"Sure thing. Now go smash that thing," the boy who had spoken up first cheered.

Hulk smirked in response to that and said, "I'll be sure to throw a few punches just for you, kid."

With that, Hulk leapt back into the fight and right at the moment when the creatures had started merging together. While that did give him a bigger target to smash, it also made things a lot more difficult, because the creatures were quickly covering the entire island, along with his teammates, who were quickly losing safe ground to stand on, as evidenced by how Giant-Man was now struggling to pull himself free and find a foothold that was not already covered by the monsters. Hulk took this chance to try and repay Giant-Man for pulling him out of the muck earlier by doing the same for Pym, but it was soon proving to be more difficult for Hulk than he had originally thought it would be. Not because he was unable to pull Pym free, but because he was quickly having to try and pull himself free as well, and from where he was standing, it looked like Iron Man and Thor were not having any better luck.

"Good thing Cap's not here," Iron Man commented as he tried to fly free of the monsters' grasps, pushing his thrusters up to their maximum settings as he did, even when the beast began to latch onto him all the more tightly. "This kind of thing probably didn't happen in the Forties. He might freak out."

"You mean like you and Goldilocks are now," Hulk retorted as he pulled one of his arms free for a few moments, only for it to get caught again seconds later.

Iron Man was about to say no, but when the monster suddenly gained a stronger hold on him and pulled him under, he found that he was unable to deny it, so he simply said, "Yep, just like I am now."

"I am not," Thor denied. "I have faced far greater beast than this in defense of Asgard. Though I will admit, none have been quite as…disgusting as this one, or as annoying."

"Heh, welcome to my life," Hulk grunted in annoyance before he snapped his mouth shut in order to keep any of the globs from getting in it.

* * *

Back at the mansion, Captain America was sitting in his room, having changed out of his old, torn uniform and into a fresh new one that was almost just like it. Sure, it was a deeper shade of blue, the gloves were now fingerless and the same shade of black as his new boots, there were some red highlights along some parts of the suit, mainly on the arms, a brown harness for his shield was now included, and his mask was now more like a helmet, but it was still the same uniform for the most part. At the moment though, Captain America was not really much for caring about how he looked in this fresh, new uniform, and it showed in how he was just sitting on his bed with his mask off, staring down at an old picture that seemed to be one of the only things he had left of his time. Some would think that it would make him feel a bit better, knowing he had something of his world left, but in reality, it was just reminding him of how he was now a man out of time in a strange world that had changed so much in his absence. Oh he had been glad to hear that they had won the war, but no one ever said what they had lost, and that held a little more significance for him than anything else right now.

Just then, he was stirred from his musing when he heard someone knocking at the door, and since he was technically a guest here at the mansion, he did not really feel like he had a right to turn them away, especially after all that the Avengers had done to try and help him so far. Plus, he did owe them a few apologies for attacking them after he woke up, even if it was out of confusion. Either way, he did not hesitate to call out, "Come in."

When the door opened, Cap could not help but smile a little when he saw the spiky haired form of Sora coming into the room, a small smile on the boy's face as he did. "Hey Cap. Sorry if I'm bothering you,"

"Don't worry. I'm just…taking it all in," the super soldier reassured Sora, his smile a little more crestfallen than he probably realized.

It was not unnoticed by Sora either, and while normally, it would have been typical to ask if Captain America was okay, even if it was obvious that he was not, but Sora opted to try a different route. Thankfully, he did not have to think too long or hard to find one, because it presented itself to him when he spotted the picture that Captain America was looking at and became a little curious about it. "Who's that," Sora asked, pointing to the image.

Cap looked back at the photo again and smiled a little more genuinely this time in response. "That's me and my old partner, Bucky," Captain America explained. He then glanced at Sora again and had to chuckle a bit when he added, "You know, after I first woke up, I almost thought you were him. The two of you do look a lot alike, except for the fact that Bucky kept his hair regulation length. I think you're probably close to the same age as he was when we first met and when he…"

Sora did not need to guess where Captain America was going with that last sentence, and it honestly made him sympathize with the super soldier. After all, there was still no guarantee that his own friends were okay despite what happened to their island home. Still, he had to stay strong, and if he was going to do that, he had to make sure that Cap did as well as best as he could. "It's really tough, isn't it," Sora asked as he sat down next to Cap on the bed, just to make sure he had the war hero's attention. "Suddenly waking up in another world that seems so similar and yet so different from your own, not knowing where any of your friends are or if they're even okay, and in the end, even if you want everyone to think that you're doing all right, you can't just hide how much its tearing you up inside forever."

Hearing all of this come from someone so young surprised Captain America a little and he just had to ask, "How do you know about all of that?"

"Well…Let's just say that you're not the only one here who's going through that kind of change. Just the most recent," Sora replied, and from the look that Cap was giving him, he quickly figured out that he was going to have to give a little more than that. "I'm actually from another world entirely, and from what the others have told me, my world sounds like a paradise, even it is a really small one. Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't, but what I do know is that all I had ever wanted was to leave it so I could explore and see all the other worlds out there with my best friends. What I didn't expect was that our dream would become a nightmare the minute my home was attacked by these creatures known as the Heartless, or that after landing here on this world it would become part of my new responsibilities to stop the Heartless from destroying any more worlds like they had my island."

Captain America stared at Sora for a minute, and the boy was starting to think that Cap was thinking he was crazy, until the super soldier smirked a little and said, "Somehow I just knew you were going to tell me you're from another world. After all, out of everyone on your team, you definitely look the most like someone who comes from another world, aside from Thor. Of course, your weapon was a bit of a giveaway in that regard."

"Wait, are you saying that you've met another Keyblade wielder like me back in the war," Sora asked.

"Is that what you call that thing you were swinging around," Cap asked, nothing but total honesty in his question, which confirmed that this was the first he had heard of the weapon. "I've never met someone who wields a sword like yours, but I have met someone who did wield a very unique sword of his own. That's part of the reason why I said I thought you looked like Bucky at first, because now, I can honestly say you remind me a little bit more of that other soldier, at least in terms of appearances."

Sora crossed his arms in thought after hearing that, wondering if he might somehow know the person that Cap was talking about. When he could not think of anyone though, he shook it out of his head and decided they needed to get back on topic, saying, "My point is that the transition you're going through might seem hard now, but it can get better with time if you let it."

"I'm not so sure about that," Cap admitted with a sigh. When Sora remained silent, Cap knew he was going to have to elaborate for the kid. "I should never have woken up. I'm a soldier, not some future man. I can't really imagine a world that's changed so much still needs…Captain America."

The two just sat there in silence for a few more minutes, until Sora thought of something that might help Cap feel a little better. "You know, my mom used to tell me all kinds of incredible stories about my dad and the adventures they had before I was born. I'm not entirely sure how many of them were true, but for the longest time, they served as inspiration to me for my own dreams," Sora started off, gaining Cap's attention and making the super soldier wonder where he was going with this. "Dad was never around though because he had disappeared a short while after I was born. Whenever I asked her about where he was, Mom would always say that he was off doing something important that would help keep us and others safe. Every time I asked her why he had to go and do it, she would tell me, 'It's because he cares about us so much, and he would do anything to make sure that we could live in a peaceful world. More than that, it's because he knew that no matter what changes, any world will always need its heroes.' With that in mind, I think that this world is lucky that you woke up, because you're one of its greatest heroes. At least, it certainly seems that way based on what I've heard about you."

Captain America mulled that over for a minute. While it was sad to hear that Sora never knew his father, the reason for why the kid's dad had left was certainly a noble one in its own right. After all, if a man loves his family so much he's willing to leave them just to keep them safe, it certainly says a great deal about his character. Maybe it is wrong to have to let Sora grow up without a father for so long, but if Sora's dad was doing something that would allow both the boy and his mother to live peaceful lives, then Cap could not really fault him for his decision that much. To be totally honest, he could sympathize with Sora a little more after hearing that. After all, his own father had died serving his country, and his mother had died not long after that, so he had a pretty good idea of what it was like not having at least one parent around in your life. Learning all of this about Sora allowed Captain America to see that this kid really could empathize with his situation and that made Cap smile a little in spite of himself.

Knowing this, Captain America immediately stood up, fixed a much more confident gaze on the boy and said, "How about I make you deal son? If you keep believing in what you're doing and never give up the good fight, then neither will I."

Seeing the fire that was now burning in his eyes made Sora finally see just why everyone saw this man before him as one of this world's greatest heroes. It was a fire that was brimming with confidence and determination to never give up, and while it may not have been all that strong right now, it certainly seemed to be steadily building up to the point where it would have made anyone want to believe that anything was possible so long as Captain America was standing with them. That feeling was all that Sora needed in order to nod in response to the captain's offer, earning a grin from the super soldier in response, and he was just about to ask Cap to tell him a little bit more about his past adventures, when another knock sounded at the door, and the two turned to see Wasp standing there with a small smile on her face.

"Janet, were you eavesdropping on us," Sora playfully accused.

"Not intentionally. I was actually just on my way up to help Steve myself, but it looks like you beat me to it. I only stuck around in case you needed an extra hand in the matter," Janet admitted. She was then wrapping Sora in a comforting hug to show him that she was going to be there for him if he ever needed her, which Sora recognized and reciprocated in kind with a small smile, and with that out of the way, she then turned to Cap and asked, "So, I've gotta ask, how do you like the room? Iron Man tried to make it as much like the Forties as he could."

Before Cap could answer, a sudden beeping came from the old radio set that was sitting on a bedside table, and the device then opened up to reveal one of JARVIS' terminals inside. _"Excuse me, Miss Wasp, Master Sora. There appears to be a guest at the main gate."_

"As much like the Forties except for the talking computer," Janet shrugged with a small laugh, earning a small smile from both of the two boys in reply.

"It's all right, actually," Steve said with a smile. "I'm just still trying to get used to it all. Especially in the case of the talking computer."

"Yeah, I'm still getting used to JARVIS always being around myself," Sora admitted. He then looked to the terminal and quickly added, "No offense JARVIS."

 _"None taken, sir."_

"I'll go see who's at the door. Hopefully, it's not anyone from SHIELD trying to get us to join up with them or something," Wasp offered, and then left the two with a small wave.

Sora could not help but smirk a little in response to Janet's comment. Even after they had refused Fury's offer to join SHIELD, the agency had not quite given up on getting the Avengers to join them. Apparently, Fury had even met with Tony at his office building the night when Enchantress and Executioner attacked them to say that he was going to be helping the team off the books, and while Sora thought this was a good thing, Tony had quickly shot that down when he said that it was not a completely honest offer. Apparently, the man was only planning on helping the Avengers when he was not trying to manipulate them, and while Fury was being honest in his offer to help locate this world's Keyhole and Sora's friends, any other help that Fury offered beyond that needed to be looked at with a microscope just to make sure that there was no drawback or grand scheme that Fury or SHIELD was trying to work behind their backs. Honestly, Sora was not sure why SHIELD would be so against the Avengers being a team or just being heroes in general. After all, they were all doing their best to help keep the world safe, so why should they be fighting with each other like they were not.

Sora just put it aside for now, realizing that if he thought about this for too long, he would likely give himself a headache, and then returned his attention to Steve just in time to see the super soldier's confused face. "What's SHIELD? Is that a future word for pest or something?"

This time, Sora did not bother stopping himself from laughing, even as he replied, "No, not exactly, but that's really more a matter of perspective and circumstances. They're supposed to be a peace keeping organization for the whole world, but they don't always do a great job of it. Tony says that they also do a lot of sketchy stuff that they justify as a necessary action for the sake of the larger world, and it's one of the few things that Hank agrees with him on. I mean, they did try to cover up the matter about Graviton, but aside from that, I haven't really seen that much to say that they aren't at least trying to help."

Steve just nodded along to Sora's explanation, even when he became a little lost when the kid mentioned Graviton, and was about to ask Sora for a little more information regarding the group when they both jumped at what sounded like an explosion, followed by Wasp screaming. Cap only paused to slip his mask on over his head, but the minute he had it on, he was following Sora out of the room and down the hall to where the kid believed his friend was right now. If he was being honest though, Captain America was not really looking forward to facing whatever this was without his shield, but whatever concerns he had about that matter were quickly put aside so he could focus on the task at hand. Just because he did not have his trusty shield with him, did not mean he was helpless without it. When the two rounded the next corner, they were left a little stunned at the sight of Wasp flying around the hallway as fast as she could while firing a barrage of stingers at a flying, literal slime ball with arms, legs, eyes, and a mouth, and it was clearly a lot faster than its size would lead others to believe.

Given how fast it was moving, it was likely going to be a matter of time before this creature caught up to Wasp, and Captain America was not going to let something happen to the small-sized woman. So he immediately charged at the thing, and tried to jump it from behind, slamming his fists down on the creature. While the effort was valiant, it was also in vain, because just seconds later, the slimy creature threw Cap back into a wall, and quickly tried to keep him there until Wasp swooped in with stingers blazing, getting the monster off of Captain America long enough for Sora to run over to try to help him up. Cap nodded in thanks to Sora to confirm that he was okay, and the kid then turned his attention to Doughboy.

"Let's see if I can slow him down a little," Sora quipped as he whipped out his Keyblade in a flash and then aimed it at the slimy creature, intending to either blast it with some ice or just freeze it in place like he had Cap earlier that day. Sadly, the Keyblade did not do anything but sit calmly in his hands, even as Sora gave it a couple of shakes as if he were trying to encourage it into doing what he wanted it to do. "Come on, come on! You were just letting me shoot fire and ice last night, and you froze Captain America in place earlier today without me even intending you too, why can't you just work with me now that I'm trying to actively do one of those things, Kingdom Key?"

Wasp would have commented or rolled her eyes at Sora's feeble attempts at getting his Keyblade to work, but she was a little more preoccupied with Doughboy at the moment. That did not mean she did not at least notice Sora's troubles, and that moment of distraction ended up costing her, because the next thing she or anyone else knew, Doughboy was right on top of her. She quickly tried to fight back and get him to back off, but all her efforts did nothing to stop Doughboy from swallowing her whole once he had her in his mouth.

"JANET/NO," Sora and Captain America shouted in horror. The two then prepared themselves for another round with Doughboy when they saw him turn to them, both fully intending to pay the slimy thing back for what it did to Wasp, but they were soon furrowing their brows in confusion when the monster paused with a pained look on its face. A second later, its body began bubbling like boiling water, swelled up, and then exploded, covering the entire hallway and Sora and Steve with what was left of it.

"Gross," Sora groaned as he wiped some of the slime off of him, and Captain America could only nod in silent agreement with the kid. "What just happened," Sora then asked.

Steve was about to say that he was not sure either until they saw some of the sludge start to move a little before a pair of wings suddenly sprouted out from beneath it, and then lifted a small bit into the air. They then heard someone coughing and groaning to show how grossed out someone had been before the person the wings belonged to wiped some of the goo off of their face to reveal a very disgusted Wasp underneath the sludge. Seeing that Janet was all right, despite getting swallowed brought relieved smiles to both of the two boys' faces, but they still felt bad that she was the only one who was drenched in the nasty substance that had just been a monster they were fighting.

"Okay, that was disturbing," Wasp coughed once she had managed to wipe enough of the gunk off her person.

Before anyone could further comment on Wasp's statement, or even check to see just how okay she was, a laser blast suddenly struck her in the abdomen, knocking her out cold. Sora and Cap both immediately spun around to face the shooter, and they were both quickly greeted by none other than Baron Zemo himself, smoking pistol in one hand, while his other hand held his sword at the ready. "Captain America, it's been a long time," Zemo casually remarked, almost making it sound as though he were greeting an old friend that he had not seen in a long time, and while it was true that he had not seen the captain in person for quite some time, the two of them were far from friends, and it showed in how Rogers was glaring at the masked daemon.

"Zemo," the captain snarled as he narrowed his eyes in anger, instantly recalling all the atrocities that the man had caused during the war. Apparently, being acknowledged by his old enemy was all that Zemo needed to start firing his weapon again, but Captain America was quick to react and immediately charged the masked man while dodging his shots. Once he got close enough, Cap immediately spun around to kick Zemo's pistol out of his hand, and then planted another kick right into Zemo himself, knocking the supervillain down and pinning him beneath the captain's boot.

Surprisingly, Zemo seemed a little too happy about being so quickly disarmed and pinned than one normally should. "Excellent, I was worried you wouldn't be as I remembered you," Zemo declared. "I wouldn't want you to be anything less than perfect for this."

As he finished saying that, Zemo kicked Captain America off of him and retrieved his recently dropped sword by kicking it up into his hand. "All these years, I thought the Red Skull had defeated you. Now I can finally have my revenge," Zemo declared as he charged the captain, kicked him in the chest, and then began circling him as Captain America did the same.

"How are you still alive Zemo," Captain America demanded.

"Death means nothing to me. I have evolved my body over the years, while you remain as you ever were," Zemo boasted. He then charged Captain America and slashed at Captain America with his sword. For the most part, the only damage Zemo really did was to the captain's costume, but despite the fact that Steve was doing his best to fight off the old World War II criminal, he was finding it a little difficult to land a solid hit on Zemo, and even more so in protecting himself from Zemo's attacks, making him wish he had his shield right now.

While this was happening, Sora had gone to check to make sure that Wasp was okay, aside from the obvious, but afterwards, he was only able to watch as Zemo matched Captain America move for move in the fight, and his worries only increased with each passing blow that Zemo landed against the super soldier. When Zemo's last strike ended up causing Captain America to drop to the floor, Sora's concerns immediately grew even more, and they just kept rising when he saw that Cap was now struggling to stand up again while Zemo boasted, "You are alone, Captain. A relic in this world. Arnim Zola's creatures will deal with your new friends, but you…Let the Skull have Bucky. Your life is mine to take!"

Zemo then lunged at Captain America, intending to run him through with his blade, but his sword never reached the super soldier. Instead, it was intercepted at almost the last minute by Sora's Keyblade, and the wielder in question was soon not only holding Zemo at bay, but also pushing him back seconds later. "Sorry to disappoint you, but Cap's not alone, and I'm not letting you hurt any of my friends," Sora promised as he readied himself for a full on sword battle against Zemo.

It came as little surprise to him that Zemo would laugh at his threat, but what Sora did find surprising was what Zemo said in retort. "So, we meet at last, Keyblade's chosen. I suppose he was right to say that you would present a problem if I wished to obtain my revenge on Captain America."

"Wait, you…know about the Keyblade? And who are you talking about," Sora asked. He was under the impression that everyone still thought Kingdom Key was either just a giant skeleton key or a key-shaped sword. There was very little chance that someone would actually have found out that it was called a Keyblade so soon, at least outside of the small circle that Fury told them about or the other Avengers. Not only that, but if what Zemo said was true, and someone really had told the masked man about him, then Sora had to wonder who it could have been that spilled the beans on that.

"I can honestly say that I do not really know who he is, but that is the problem when dealing with a man who hides in shadows and wears a cloak that prevents you from seeing his face, but I will say this: he gave me the perfect tool for dealing with you in particular," Zemo admitted. He then snapped his fingers, and the next thing that Sora and Cap knew, a number of creatures in odd-looking knight armor suddenly materialized before them, and if what he read of the report that Fury had given them was any indication, Sora could see that they all had the emblem of the Heartless emblazoned on their chests.

It took little time for Sora to identify these particular Heartless as the ones known as Soldiers, which he also remembered seeing on the Helicarrier the day of the Breakout, but he still had to wonder, "How are you able to control the Heartless?"

"As I said, a little temporary gift from a recent acquaintance. Not that you will live long enough to discover who he is, mind you, but why let you die with too many unanswered questions," Zemo shrugged, and he then waved his hand towards Sora, signaling the Heartless to attack. A signal that the Soldier Heartless did not hesitate to follow, because they were quickly jumping right at Sora.

Sora quickly raised his Keyblade in defense once more, and just in time to parry a blow or two that would have sent him flying across the hallway, but he soon found that Soldiers were a bit more difficult to fight than the Shadows. This was due in part to the fact that the Soldiers were able to parry his attacks as well and easily spun across a battlefield in a variety of ways to hit him. Sometimes in somersaults, other times like tops, but when they were not spinning all around the place, they were kicking and clawing at him just like the Shadows would. With these new added tactics to contend with, along with how many of them there were and how unexpected their appearance had been, Sora found it a little difficult to fight off the Heartless this time. This was only proven more true when one finally got him from behind, giving the others a chance to dog-pile him, and Sora was now struggling to stand just about as much as Captain America was, unable to do anything more than watch as the remaining Heartless advanced on the unconscious Wasp while Zemo prepared to finish off Captain America once more.

Just when all hope seemed lost though, something suddenly came flying across the room, straight through the Heartless that had pinned Sora down, and right into the path of Zemo's blade, intercepting his strike before he could hit his mark. The minute he was free, Sora instantly dashed over to where Wasp was, and sliced through all the Heartless that had been moving towards her. With that done, Sora immediately turned in time with Zemo to see who had thrown that last minute-saving attack, and they both found their eyes settling on a man in a skin-tight, black cat suit perched up on wall. The cat-suited man then drew some purple daggers and hurled them at a new wave of Heartless that were about to get the drop on Sora once more.

When Sora realized this, he immediately turned to try and thank the cat-man, but before he could get more than one word out, the man had already leapt clear across the room in an incredible display of acrobatics, and out of sight once more like a ninja. Zemo likely would have attempted to pursue whoever that man was for his interference, but his attention was drawn away from the interloper when Captain America suddenly shouted, "All right, Sock-Face. You want a fight, you've got one!"

Both Zemo and Sora instantly turned to the captain to see that the object that the stranger used to save Sora and Cap was actually the super soldier's red, white, and blue shield, which Cap was now wearing proudly on his arm as he charged in to face Zemo once more. Zemo was quick to try and counter with his sword, but now that he had his shield, Captain America was able to parry the strike with no problem at all, and as such, he was also able to kick Zemo away while he spun around so that his shield would have more power behind it when he threw it at his old enemy. Zemo easily ducked under the shield, but failed to realize that Cap had thrown it so that when it rebounded off the wall, it would ricochet in a way that would allow it to hit him from behind until he felt the vibranium disk hit him in the back of his head. Captain America then leapt into the air so that he could catch his shield on its return trip, and his shield was soon meeting Zemo's sword just after Zemo had flipped back up onto his feet.

Sora would likely have joined in at some point to try and help, but he did not for two reasons. The first reason, and the most obvious one, was that the Heartless were still in the mansion, and he had to get rid of them before they tried to hurt Wasp. The second reason was that Sora could see very clearly that this was Captain America's fight alone, so it would not have been right for him to step into the middle of it right now. Not that he really saw any way that he could, because from what he could see, Cap had effectively turned the tables on Zemo completely, as evidenced by how the super soldier spun around to force the dagger Zemo drew on him into the wall before snapping the small blade in half with a kick. Having his dagger unexpectedly shattered while it was embedded in the wall like that threw Zemo off balance a little, giving Cap a chance to slam his shield into Zemo's chin in an uppercut and then kick Zemo away hard. Thankfully, Cap's last hit on Zemo had sent the masked daemon flying right through the last of the Heartless, causing them all to be dispersed upon impact, and even though it was likely unintentional, Sora still had to throw the captain a nod of thanks for making his part of the job a little easier.

Captain America returned Sora's nod with one of his own before both of them moved towards the defeated villain while the former ordered, "Give up, Zemo."

"Never. This is my world, and you don't belong in it Captain, no matter how much your new little friend seems to believe otherwise," Zemo panted, showing he intended to keep fighting to the end if he had to.

"I may not know a lot about the future, but I know one thing about the past," Captain America told his old foe with a small amount of pride. "You lost the war. You'll always lose, whether I'm here or not."

Apparently that Zemo was not one to take such comments as anything other than insults, because the next thing he did was reach into his belt and pull out a small device which he immediately activated and then threw towards Wasp. Even without the soft beeping that it was giving off, Cap could not think of anything that device could be other than a bomb, and if it went off that close to Wasp then she would most definitely die, and there was no telling how much more damage it could do when it did go off. Knowing this, Captain America immediately made a mad dash over to the size-changer while shouting, "Sora, take cover!"

Like Captain America, Sora also acted on instinct when he realized what was about to happen, but instead of just diving for cover like Cap had told him to, he raised his Keyblade up between him and his friends, and immediately shouted, "DEFENSE!"

What happened next was the sound of Cap's shield landing on the floor between Wasp and the bomb, along with what sounded like a barrier of some type forming in the area, followed by the bomb going off and leaving the half the hallway in rubble and fire. What no one expected was for a second explosion to be released afterwards, this one being of light instead of fire. After the explosions had passed, Captain America looked up to see that not only had Zemo escaped, but none of them had even the smallest scratch on them. Even his shield had escaped from the blast without a little bit of soot, and Steve could only think of one person who could have done that. As such, he immediately turned to Sora, who was still holding his Keyblade up in the air out of shock when he realized what he had done just now, gazing at the Kingdom Key in questioning disbelief the entire time.

"You sure have the oddest timing when it comes to getting that thing to do something that will be the most helpful," Captain America commented.

"I'm not even sure what I did just now to be honest. I just reacted on instinct and then the Keyblade threw up a barrier around us," Sora admitted.

Hearing that, Cap could not help but chuckle a little as he said, "Maybe you should consider getting an instruction manual for that thing."

"I can't argue with you on that," Sora laughed in agreement, and their laughter ended up being what finally roused Janet back into consciousness.

"What'd I miss," Janet gasped when she saw that the hallway was on fire.

"We'll explain on the way," Captain America said as he helped Janet up, feeling a little odd when he did given that Janet was still only six inches tall. "Your team is in trouble."

"And if the Heartless were here with that Zemo guy, then there may be a chance that they're also attacking the others as well," Sora pointed out.

Wasp just nodded in response to the two and immediately flew off towards the Quinjet once she was up, with both of the two men following after her as fast as they could. The fight was still not over yet.

* * *

Back at Ellis Island, the blob monster had nearly consumed all of the island beneath it, and Thor's lightning attacks were not making any difference in stopping it. If anything, they were just making it more of a problem. "Hey, Goldilocks! The lightshow is not helping," Hulk hollered as he struggled to pull himself free of the giant Doughboys.

"Thor, Hulk's right! The electricity is making it grow," Giant-Man shouted before he was almost completely submerged beneath the wave of blobs.

Thor immediately ended his lightning attacks, but was soon swarmed by the monster's gooey form, even as he tried to hammer it away to no avail. "You say science is responsible for this monstrosity," Thor questioned as he continued struggling in an attempt to free himself.

"Well, people are responsible for it," Giant-Man clarified as he pushed against the blobs around him. "Bad people using science very irresponsibly."

"In other words, yes! Bad science made this thing. No one cares about the specifics, Tiny," Hulk retorted, feeling that Pym was wasting his time trying to get into specific details in the middle of a fight like this.

Iron Man blasted himself free for a moment then, but he was quickly pulled back down, and he had to cry out, "Someone do something!"

His request was soon fulfilled when a red and white blur sliced through the tentacles that were pulling him down, and he immediately looked up just in time to see Captain America catching his shield on its return trip up on the Quinjet's boarding ramp. The minute he had his shield in hand again, Captain America immediately leapt down off the jet with Wasp and Sora following after him through their respective methods of flight, the former of the two firing her stingers as she descended down to the others. Unlike any of the attacks that the others had thrown out though, Wasp's stingers ended up having a very significant impact, something she had realized earlier in her fight against Doughboy, and she was quickly using that to her advantage so that she could get the rest of her teammates free. Sora on the other hand simply flew down so that he could help pull Thor and Hulk free from the oversized blob, and then struck at it using the skids of his bike. Surprisingly, when Sora hit the beast with his Keyblade Glider, it seemed to writhe in almost as much if not just as much pain as it did whenever Wasp hit it for some reason, showing that Sora was somehow able to hurt it just as much as Wasp could, a fact that he was not complaining about.

With Sora and Wasp going to town on the massive blob monster, the other Avengers were soon as free as they could get from goop, with Iron Man being the last one to be pulled free thanks to Captain America. "Thanks," Iron Man nodded to the captain once he had flown them both out of danger for the moment and over to where the other Avengers had regrouped, with Wasp keeping up a perimeter by constantly firing her stingers at the monster, while Sora did what he could to keep it at bay by slashing it with his Keyblade anytime it got past Janet.

"We're not done, soldier," Captain America informed Tony while the others moved a bit closer to them. "This is one of Arnim Zola's genetic freaks."

"Zola, of course! I should've recognized his work," Hank exclaimed after he had shrank down to his normal size. "That's why Wasp's stings were so effective. They're bio-energy!"

"Well then how come Spiky's Keyblade is working just as well," Hulk questioned, growling a little at the fact that the tiny girl was able to hurt this thing more than he was. Though he would admit that he was smiling on the inside at the fact that she was also doing a better job of hurting it than Thor was, so there was that silver lining.

"I'm…not sure," Hank admitted with a shrug, jumping a little when one of the tentacles got a little too close to him until Sora sliced it away.

Sora slashed and sliced at the monster a few more times until he finally found a moment to pause and said, "I think I might know why." The others immediately turned to him at that point, and he quickly explained, "I can't explain how, but for some reason, I feel like there's Heartless in the area."

"But we haven't seen anything other than this oversized muck since we got here, and I've recalibrated my scanners to better detect Heartless after we ran into them during our fight with Thor's old pals," Iron Man argued.

"I know, but I'm just getting the feeling I normally have whenever the Heartless are nearby. They're not here, but I can…sense that there's something with their power all around us," Sora elaborated. "I think somehow this Zola guy found a way to infuse this thing with the same kind of darkness that the Heartless possess."

"I think you might be right about that," Hank agreed. It was not like he had a better explanation after all.

Still, hearing that Hank recognized Zola's work made Captain America feel a little weary for a moment, which is why he had to ask, "You know that madman?"

"I studied some of his creatures before," Hank revealed. "They all had a weakness. Instability, and with the right energy signature, we can accelerate that instability!" Hank then activated his Ant-Man helmet and began cycling through the sound frequencies it put out until he found just the right one, which caused the glob monsters to move back and cry out in pain. Hank then looked to his armored teammate and shouted over the noise, "Iron Man, modulate your repulsor. Match the energy signature my helmet is putting out!"

"JARVIS…what he said," Iron Man then told his AI.

 _"Indeed. Modulating repulsors now,"_ JARVIS replied, and he immediately began doing just as he was asked while Ant Man, Wasp, and Sora continued to hold the monster at bay, with Hulk pitching in with a shockwave or two whenever he could. The minute the modulation was finished, Iron Man fired his unibeam at full power, and the monsters were instantly vaporized, leaving nothing more than a gooey mess on the island and everyone on it.

"Victory…is ours," Thor declared unenthusiastically as he blew some of the gunk out of his face.

Wasp just flapped her wings a bit to clear some of the gunk off of her as she shivered and then sarcastically commented along with Hulk, "Hooray."

Everyone just stood there for another minute either looking over what had happened or wiping the gunk off of them, when the sound of excited cheers of the grateful people reached all of their ears. As they all turned to face the crowd, each of the Avengers could see a smile on the face of Captain America, proving that he finally had the last bit of proof he needed that he was indeed still able to make a difference when it came to keeping the world safe. Aside from that, Sora also looked to see that Hulk was gazing out at the cheering crowd in disbelief, clearly surprised by how so many people were showing this kind of thanks to him of all people, and after another moment or so, he saw the big guy crack a small smile at the sight.

When he saw that happen, Sora just had to comment on it. "You see, Hulk. People can see you as a hero, and everyone can now see that they can count on you to help them out."

Hulk knew that there was no arguing with the kid now, so he just sighed in defeat and said, "All right Spiky, you win. I'll stay, but only because you've convinced me too."

Sora just grinned when he heard that, and he did not need to glance at the others to know that they were all showing a great deal of relief or happiness at hearing the big guy was not going to take off again. After all, Hulk was a founding Avenger, so it would have sucked if he just took off and left the team again so soon after it had been formed.

* * *

That night, everyone had returned to the mansion for some much needed showers and a good dealing of simple relaxing. During that downtime, Thor had quickly sought out the Hulk so that he could speak with the gamma hero, feeling that he owed Hulk a few words after everything that happened between them. It did not take long for Thor to find his friend, because he soon found Hulk pigging out in the kitchen much like he had been when he walked in on their first day at the mansion. When Hulk realized that Thor was there though, his rapid eating immediately slowed to a crawl so that he could glare at the Asgardian, and the blonde did not shy away from it or give one of his own in return, much to Hulk's surprise.

"I am glad that you decided to stay, Friend Hulk," Thor started off, a little hesitantly but still honest all the same. "I also wish to apologize for my earlier behavior towards you. I can see now that you are indeed a noble warrior, one who has saved the Avengers and others many times. I will admit that fighting you was probably the most exhilarating battle I've had in a long time, but my reasons at the time were not the correct ones."

Hulk just stared at Thor for a minute before he finally shrugged and said, "It's okay. I'm not exactly the easiest person to get along with. Besides, you can't really blame me. I've spent a lot of time running from guys who want to either kill me, turn me into a weapon, or simply take me down. That makes it a little hard to trust others that well."

"Yes, I can understand that," Thor nodded, grabbing a drink from the freezer as he did so he could join Hulk for his meal.

"Plus, I just get so angry all the time, and it isn't always easy to handle, even for me," Hulk growled.

Thor nodded once more to that, even as he poured a drink for himself and for Hulk, and after passing Hulk his drink, Thor found he could not help but smile as he said, "You know, we're actually very much the same, you and I. Just a couple of hot-headed fools."

"Yeah, same," Hulk agreed. "I'm like fire, and you're like water."

"Well, we are kind of both like fire," Thor disagreed.

"But I'm like a real, raging massive fire, and you're like a puny, small, smoldering fire," Hulk insisted.

Thor just glared at Hulk for a minute before he finally found himself laughing a little, with Hulk joining in soon after for a moment. When they both settled down, Thor raised his mug up in a toast and said, "Well, here's to us and the battles we will face, both against our future enemies and against each other." When Hulk quirked an eyebrow at that last part, Thor explained, "We never really did determine who would win in a match between us."

"Heh, sure we did. It was me, and you just kept thinking you could knock me down," Hulk smirked in kind.

"Did more than think, I believe," Thor retorted.

"Well, here's to next time I smash you then," Hulk agreed, and the two settled on that before enjoying the rest of their meal in companionable silence.

What neither of them knew was that Sora secretly had followed after Thor when he found out that the Asgardian was looking for Hulk, and had heard the whole conversation as a result. It was not the kid's intention to spy on the two, mind you; he was just worried that the two would get into an argument again and that it would drive Hulk to attempt to leave once more. Naturally, he was very happy to hear that the two had resolved things the way they did, though he did have to struggle to not burst out laughing at some points during their talk, and feeling satisfied with how things turned out, he immediately pushed off the wall and left for the lounge where he knew Tony and Captain America were currently watching one of the news reports that were discussing the events that had happened earlier that day. When he started to get close to the room, he instantly picked up on the sound of Tony's voice and he knew that the Avengers' leader was getting ready to talk to Cap about the matter he wanted to discuss, so once again, he hung back to listen in on the conversation in secret. He knew he would have to step in eventually, but he wanted to see how things played out before he did.

"Bio-engineered monsters, freaky ooze creatures…is that what it was like fighting evil in the forties," Tony asked the captain.

"No. Sometimes it got strange," the soldier replied with a smirk.

Tony stared for a moment before he asked, "Did you just make a joke? Captain America has a sense of humor."

"Don't get used to it soldier, and please, call me Steve," Rogers then told Stark with a smile.

Tony smiled as he stood up and held out a small picture to Steve and said, "I found something. I want you to have it."

"Howard Stark," Steve exclaimed as he accepted the photo of him, the previously mentioned man, and Bucky.

"My father," Tony explained. "He looked up to you so much. We all did. We all do."

"That was a long time ago," Steve argued.

"Could've fooled me," Sora disputed, deciding that now was the time to make himself known as he walked in, earning the other two's attention. "I only just learned about you yesterday, and after everything I've heard and seen up until now, I'm happy to say that I look up to you a lot too. You're definitely a real hero, Steve, and one that I'm proud to call a friend."

Steve smiled in response to Sora's words before he turned to Stark and said, "Thank you for the photo, Tony. It's really all I have now."

"That's not true. You saved our lives today, and Zemo and Arnim Zola are still out there. You have place here Steve, with the Avengers," Tony then told the captain as he held out his hand.

Steve smiled proudly as he accepted the handshake saying, "I'd be honored. Now, when can I meet the Avenger who saved me from Zemo? The one in the black cat suit?"

Tony paused for a minute as he raised an eyebrow and asked, "Wait, who?"

"Oh yeah, uh I was actually going to mention that to you earlier, Tony, but with everything that happened today," Sora admitted sheepishly. Tony's reaction was instantaneous, because he immediately ranting and raving about how he could not believe that someone had already gotten past his security system twice now in less than two days, and he then stormed out of the room while muttering about giving the system a complete overhaul, leaving Steve feeling concerned and Sora a bit amused.

"Is he going to be okay," Steve asked.

"Yeah, I think so. He just needs to do something to help calm down a little, and we've all had a pretty exciting day, so maybe a good night's sleep will help too," Sora waved in reply.

Steve just nodded in reply and said, "I'd also like to thank you for what you said earlier, Sora. It really was a big help, and if you ever need someone to talk to, I'd be happy to listen."

"Thanks Cap," Sora nodded.

"Hey, like I told Tony a moment ago, you can just call me Steve," the captain informed the kid.

Sora nodded in reply to that and then glanced at the photo that was still in Steve's hand. Feeling curious, Sora immediately asked if he could have a look at it, and Steve did not hesitate to grant that request so long as Sora brought back to him or up to his room when the kid was done. Looking down at the black and white photo, it took Sora little time to pick out Steve and Bucky, and if his guess was right, he figured that the man in between them was Tony's father, mostly because of how much he looked like Tony. There was one other person in the photo though, and that was what made Sora pause for a second. The person in question was a relatively tall man, standing somewhere between the height of Howard Stark and Cap, had long hair, and seemed to wear a long-sleeved coat over a shirt, along with dark pants that was held up by a couple of belts. He also had what looked like a large sword hefted up over his shoulder, and despite the fact that the picture was in black and white, Sora could somehow picture a slightly tanned face with blue eyes that were very similar to his own on this fourth person. When he realized how easily he was able to picture that, Sora's eyes immediately widened while one word slipped from his lips in shock. "Dad?"

* * *

During the celebratory time at Avengers Mansion and Sora's startling discovery, Zemo had returned to Arnim Zola's lab and upon his arrival had called out, "Your creatures failed me Arnim. In order to defeat Captain America, we must destroy the Avengers." Zemo then paused for a moment when he received no response and called out again, "Arnim?"

A light suddenly came on behind him and he instantly spun around to see Arnim Zola lying on his side at the feet of Enchantress and Executioner. Seeing that these two had apparently dispatched Zola so easily, along with the faint traces of movement in the shadows behind them quickly told Zemo that these two must have been the agents that the stranger had spoken of, which was why he stayed his hand and allowed Enchantress to say, "Baron Zemo, I have an offer for you two."

* * *

 ** _AN: Well, that's a wrap. Uh-oh, guess who that was that gave Zemo the power to control the Heartless earlier. Seriously, if you know your Kingdom Hearts, this should be easy to figure out. But here's a better question, why does it seem like Enchantress is working for him? Or is there something even deeper going on there?_**

 ** _Speaking of which, who else knew that Cap comparing Sora to Bucky was going to happen? Yeah, I just had to throw that in there. After all, in mainstream continuity and in Avengers EMH, Bucky was just a kid during WWII, so it would only be natural that Steve make the comparison. While on the subject though, yeah, it looks like Captain America fought alongside Sora's dad here. Someone had mentioned to me that it would be hard to say that Cap had teamed up with a Keyblade Wielder during the war, and I had to agree with them. Yes, there is typically a time difference between worlds in KH, but not even real life has a time difference that great between two places. At least, not that I know of. But I was not going to have him miss out on something from another world entirely, and that gave me the idea of how to push forward a little more with the AU aspect of this story._**

 ** _One thing that we always see in any KH fanfiction is Sora and other KH characters getting parents, simply because they want to, or even the simple reason that we never see Sora's parents in KH mainstream. Or Riku's for that matter. Yeah, we heard Sora's mom's voice in the first game, and we know that Kairi's foster dad is the mayor of Destiny Islands while her grandmother raised her when she was a little girl, but that's really the most we get in that regard. Now I know what some of you are thinking, and let me tell you right now that Sora's dad in this story...Is going to be something of a surprise that will not be unveiled until we get to the chapter in which Sora finally travels to Traverse Town. But you will get a clue as to who his parents are next chapter. That's all I'm going to say on that right now._**

 ** _On to another matter: Hulk's presence and how things changed for this chapter because of it. Yeah, I needed to have that little moment between Hulk and the kids. What better way to show people that the big guy's not a monster than by having him save some kids, right? And then of course, we got to meet Doctor Banner at last, and have him explain to Sora how his relationship with Hulk works. That being said, everyone caught all the little references and homages to Thor Ragnarok, right? Because I just had to put them in there, either because it helped with certain parts of the story, or because they were funny._**

 ** _Also, we saw a little more showcasing on how Sora is still learning about his Keyblade's abilities, and how it's giving him so much trouble. First off was his use of the Stop spell during the fight with Cap, and then his use of the Reflect spell to protect himself and the others from Zemo's bomb. Seems like he's having as much trouble with the Keyblade as Ben 10 normally has with the omnitrix, huh? Well, it's going to stay that way for a while, but we won't really see much evidence of that next chapter, because we've got something else going on that might get you all feeling pretty excited or unsure, depending on how you feel about it after you move Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _In the calm that follows after Captain America's return, Sora finds himself facing what could be his greatest challenge yet. One that may prove to either make him stronger, or break him entirely. The challenge that all teenagers must endure at some point in their lives: Sora must attend…High School. And not just any High School. Sora has been enrolled as one of the newest students at Midtown Manhattan Magnet High, and just after arriving, he finds himself making new friends and some new discoveries regarding his identity as an Avenger. Just what will Sora experience in these halls of learning, what sort of people will he meet, and could it be that something may happen that will make the whole thing a little more spectacular? Find out what sort of amazing experience awaits, in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Yeah, you heard it here. It's happening. Sora's heading off to school, and it's the same school that everyone's favorite MARVEL hero attends, which means said hero is likely to appear next chapter! You know him, you love him, and if you can't guess it yet, then I'll go ahead tell you about him. It's none other than the amazing, the spectacular, the sensational, the friendly neighborhood...SPIDER-MAN!_**

 ** _[cue "Spectacular Spider-Man" theme music in the background as the web-head flips and swings across the stage for an excited audience applause]_**

 ** _And don't think that we'll just be seeing Spidey and a couple of his friends next chapter. There will be others from Spider-Man mythos in there too. Until then though..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	5. Spectacular Class Time

**_AN: Well, it took a little while, and had to wait while a couple of my other stories were getting updated, but we are now back for the next chapter in the tales of Sora's adventures with the Avengers. And not only that, but this chapter, we're going to see some really great stuff this time around, because this is the chapter where we see this story's iteration of everyone's favorite web-swinging crime-fighter, the spectacular Spider-Man!_**

 ** _[audience applause]_**

 ** _Yep, you know this is going to be all kinds of awesome, and from some of the reviews we got after last chapter, I'm betting a lot of you have just been itching for this chapter to come out._**

 ** _Sora: I haven't. I've gotta go to school in this._**

 ** _AN: Well, we've all gotta go sometime._**

 ** _Hawkeye: I didn't. I grew up in the circus._**

 ** _AN: Yes, and we all know how well that turned out._**

 ** _Hawkeye: Hey! What's that supposed to mean?_**

 ** _AN: Nothing Hawkeye, I'm just messing with you. We all know you could've ended up being a lot worse than you are now. Anyways, before we start this thing, how about a review answer or two?_**

 ** _First up, let's start with "Disneyfan62". When we learn who Sora's father is, I think the question of who his mother is will fit into place pretty easily. I haven't really given too much thought to how a third story for this epic would happen, or what would take place in it just yet, but I can promise that it could very well happen. I just don't want it to focus too much on the Xehanort plot. As we will see here in this story, this is technically mixing together the stories about both series while giving a new spin to one or both. Some Final Fantasy characters will indeed be joining the Avengers, but I'll be keeping information on which ones to myself, along with whether or not it'll just be a temporary team-up or a full-time membership. I can promise that we will see at least one of them showing up in the next chapter though. Finally, there's no real plans for Star Wars in this story at the moment. I just haven't found a way to work it into things in a way that makes sense yet, and I am actually trying to be honest._**

 ** _Next is to our pal "AvengersFan24601". You'll find out the answer to most of your questions in this chapter, but as for Spidey being a full-time member in this, if you mean in regards to the Avengers, no, he won't be a full-time member. More like an honorary member at this point, but that won't be coming until later on._**

 ** _To our 2/13 guest reviewer "Guest", Harry will actually start out as...less than a real friend in this story, but don't worry, Sora will play a small part in helping Harry to remember who his friends are. Though that won't happen for a little while._**

 ** _Speaking of guest reviews to answer, let's go on to the one from "avenger11". Yes, Disney does exist in Marvel, and no, I'm not going to repeat my reasons as to why that is. I made them very clear the last time this little line of critiquing came up. As for your other concerns regarding fourth wall breaking...Well, I'll leave that to my man Tony Stark._**

 ** _Iron Man: Well to put it simply...[gets zapped by a jolt of lightning] What the hell was that for?!_**

 ** _AN: Not yet, fool! I meant, I'm letting you explain in the main story. I'll also simplify it for everyone in the ending note as well, just to be clear._**

 ** _Moving on to "Straw Hat PiratesFan2018", Sora and the team will be going to other worlds soon. I'm aiming to make it happen in a couple more chapters, so look forward to that._**

 ** _Speaking of other worlds, in response to a review by "Dragon Naruto", yeah, the Avengers will indeed join Sora on his trip to Hollow Bastion, and not just to help him stop a final bad guy or two. They'll have a pretty huge stake in that journey as well._**

 ** _Wasp: Well that's not ominous or anything._**

 ** _AN: Moving right along, to "keys of fate", glad your so fond of the story so far, and here's hoping it continues to impress. Most of your questions will get an answer here, but I will say that the Kahmal Khan Ms. Marvel will not be appearing here. Mainly because she got her name from the original Ms. Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, and Carol hasn't shown up or become a hero in this story yet._**

 ** _Now, in reply to another guest review, this one being the "Guest" from 12/13/17, Sora may or may not encounter an enemy of Doctor Strange or two, but that's yet to really be determined. After all, he needs to be focused on the Heartless and such, so Strange won't want Sora to get mixed up in his branch of insanity._**

 ** _Wrapping it up with our old friend "Monkey D. Conan", the version of Spider-Man we see here will become clear by the time the chapter is through, and as for Sora's combat teacher, he'll have both Captain America and Black Panther to help in that department, if he feels that he needs it, or if they do._**

 ** _Well, that just about covers everything in the review answering department, so let's get the show swinging. Avengers, to the chapter!..._**

 ** _I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

Chapter V

Things passed by in relative peace at Avengers Mansion after the events of Captain America's return, and while some of the other heroes were all keeping busy with some manner of business, Sora was preoccupied with something else. While he was sure that the man in that picture Tony gave to Steve was his dad, he did not want to confront either Stark or Cap on the questions that were now racing through his head just yet. All his life he thought that his father had been traveling his rather small world, seeing things that no one else had known about, and he would admit that some small part of him believed his father had found a way to reach other worlds, but finding proof of that idea was another matter entirely. That was actually part of the reason why he wanted to travel to other worlds with his friends; to see if he could find some clues as to what happened to his dad, but now that he had found something, he was not entirely sure what to think. Did his father really find a way to reach other worlds, did his mother know about that too, and if so, why did she not ever tell him? More to the point, what else had his mother not told him, in regards to his father, and the lives his parents lived before he was born?

With all of those questions running through his head, it was a little easier to understand why he was not approaching any of his teammates with that information just yet. Sora wanted to try and figure this out for himself before going to anyone else with it, and besides, for all he knew, he could be wrong, and the man in that picture was just someone who looked a lot like his dad. On the other hand, Cap did mention that one of his old war buddies was someone from another world when they were talking the other day, so maybe it was his dad. Either way, Sora was not entirely sure. Speaking of other worlds, there was one other thing that had been on Sora's mind lately, namely since that meeting the Avengers had with Fury after the battle with Graviton. It was not something he had really ever gotten around to talking with the others about with all the excitement that they had been through since forming the Avengers, but since they now had a chance to breathe, Sora was not going to waste the opportunity to ask someone about it, and he already knew two people he could ask.

The first person he wanted to question was Hank, but unfortunately, Ant-Man was busy working on his pet project, Ultron, and did not seem to really be receptive to very much going on around him, unless it was named Janet Van Dyne, so Sora ended up settling for the other resident scientist of the team. "Hey Tony, can I ask you about something really quick," Sora questioned after he found the Iron Man in one of the mansion's other labs.

Tony had been working down in said lab on some upgrades for his armors, while simultaneously going over some details for a meeting he had with Simon Williams of Williams Innovations the next day and studying the security feeds from the other day in an attempt to figure out who the mysterious cat-suit man that saved Cap and Sora was, but the minute he heard Sora come in, he did put a small pause on at least two of those projects. He kept working on figuring out who had managed to get past his security system and move around the mansion clear as day without JARVIS ever knowing he was there as a point of pride, but he still made it clear he was paying a little attention to the kid when he said, "Sure Sora. What's on your mind?"

"Well…Remember when Fury told us about how he learned of the Heartless from Mickey Mouse," Sora asked, figuring that was as good a starting place as any.

"It's kinda hard to forget, considering that guys like Nick Fury don't admit to something like that very often," Tony pointed out.

"Right, and I figured that must mean that a bunch of other Disney movies are real too, or that they might be different worlds," Sora explained.

"Okay…" Tony urged, wanting to know where Sora was going with this.

"Well, if and when I finally figure out how to reach other worlds, and that does turn out to be the case, then wouldn't that mean we would know about everything that happens on that world because we saw those movies," Sora asked.

"Probably, but I highly doubt it," Tony answered. When he heard no reply from the kid, he turned away from his work to see Sora giving him a confused look, and he knew that he would have to give more explanation than that. "Well, here's what I'm thinking, Sora. Just because Mickey Mouse might be real, doesn't mean that every other world out there is just a Disney movie made real, and even if that is the case, the chances of events following along to the exact same line as those of the movies is incredibly low. For example, if we went to say…Agrabah, then it could be that Aladdin was the evil sorcerer who wanted to take over as sultan while Jafar was the selfless street-rat."

"That's a little disturbing," Sora informed Tony with a cringe.

"Yeah, I know, but it doesn't change what I'm getting at," Tony pointed out. "Even if we have seen all the Disney movies, we have no way of really knowing for sure if the events of other worlds would play out the exact same way, assuming that those movies are the stories of other worlds at all. Not only that, but there's just as easily a chance that the events of those movies have already happened, and when you do get to those worlds, you would end up at a point after those stories, between the stories, assuming any of them had sequels with a significant time-gap, or even at a point before those adventures had even happened at all. But like I said, this is all going off the idea that the worlds you would travel to are similar or even duplicates of those movies."

"So what you're saying is that even though we know about the movies, we won't be able to make things go any differently than they had in the movies, because the stories of those worlds might unfold in a way that's already completely different from what we know," Sora asked.

"Exactly," Tony nodded. "Of course, it's going to be pretty different anyway, since you would be right in the middle of it, or even you and whichever one of us ends up going along with you to these other worlds, but there's also the chance that you might end up on a world that tells the story of a video game series or something. Either way, we can't just go in thinking that any fictional media we've seen is going to be some kind of outline on how events will play out, so why do so in the first place. Think of it like the multiverse theory, which says that what happened in one world, didn't happen in another, or that if we made one decision in one world, then another world where we made the opposite choice is created."

"I think I get it," Sora nodded. His head hurt a little, but he did understand all the same. Basically, Tony was saying that even if another world had people and places that they knew from the Disney movies, there was no way that the actual events of those worlds would be exactly the same as the stories they knew, so there was no chance of them being able to interfere or break the fourth wall.

"Glad to hear it, and I'm also glad to see that you're already getting a workout for your brain going, considering what tomorrow is," Tony informed Sora, a small, teasing smirk forming on his face when he did.

Sora looked at Tony in confusion, not entirely sure what the billionaire genius was talking about, until one particular thing clicked in his mind. "Oh, come on, Tony. Do I really have to," Sora complained.

"Yes, Sora, you do," Tony confirmed, and while his teasing grin remained, his tone carried a slight air of tiredness to it, proving that they had this conversation a few times already.

"Aw, but I don't wanna," Sora whined with his arms crossed.

"Well, you're gonna. We've been over this Sora. You may be an Avenger, but you're still fourteen years old. So tomorrow, you're going to be starting the first day of your freshman year of high school," Tony declared like it was the greatest thing in the world. A fact that Sora wholeheartedly disagreed with.

"Can't I at least wait until summer's over like any other kid," Sora practically begged. He may have been eager to grow up and reach the age where he would be able to get his driver's license and such once upon a time, but that was back when he was little, and like many other kids, the one thing that Sora did not enjoy that much was school. If it was back on Destiny Islands, it would be a different story, mainly because he would at least be attending with all of his friends. Except for Riku since he was a year older than most of them, but at least he would still be going to the same school as his best friend. Here, he would be enrolling into a whole new school where he would not know anybody, so that was a huge problem for him.

Apparently his latest complaint on the matter had thrown Tony off quite a bit, because the genius had stopped his work completely to give Sora a bewildered look of his own for a minute until he finally revealed, "Sora, summer vacation ended about a month ago."

"What? That can't be right," Sora protested. "It was just the middle of summer a week ago."

Tony was about to argue against that again, until he thought of something else. "Was this here, or back on Destiny Islands?"

"Back on Destiny Islands, why," Sora questioned, not understanding what that had to do with anything.

"Well that explains it then," Tony replied. "I don't know if you know this Sora, but time usually flows differently on other worlds in comparison to the one you call home. This right here is one such example. While it was the middle of summer back on your island, the new school year has been going on here for about a month or so. In fact, if we were to go further into detail, it could be mid-morning on another world right now, despite it being nighttime here."

"Oh…I see," Sora sighed with a slump, seeing that he had no way out of going to school now because of this little detail. Until he thought of one other detail. "Are you sure I can't just be homeschooled or something? I mean, what if bad guys attack the school because I'm an Avenger or something? And besides that, what if something happens and you guys need me to help save the day, or I suddenly get zapped to a different world in the middle of class?"

"I've already thought of all that. I've explained the principle of your new school that you will need to be excused from class for Avengers business, but _only_ if it's an absolute emergency or something. And I've also made sure that he understood that if you ever suddenly disappear without us summoning you, it would most likely be due to something relating to your powers. I didn't tell him it would involve you going to another world because of how we're supposed to be keeping that a secret, apparently, but either way, you're covered on that front." Tony then turned to his work bench so he could grab something from it, and then finished, "As for what would happen if bad guys attack…well, I'm sure no one will be too concerned, since I've already promised to pay for any damages and the school's new insurance policy with Damage Control Inc. Plus, you'll also be even more ready to handle it with this."

Sora arched an eyebrow at Tony once again, only to suddenly jump back when Tony threw something to him that he barely managed to catch. Looking down at the object in his hands, Sora saw that it appeared to be a small ring or collar of some kind, and his confusion was now amplified even more. "What's this thing," Sora asked.

"A new addition to your wardrobe," Tony replied. "I was going to include it before, but Janet insisted that we needed to get the basic parts of your outfit for you right away. This is just what I think will be the most vital part of your new…let's call it partial armor."

"You're making me armor," Sora asked in excitement.

"Not a full suit, kid. Just a few pieces. Your outfit may have some additional padding to it thanks to the nanotech in it, but that still leaves a good amount of you without protection, like your head for example," Tony explained as he walked over to help Sora strap the newest addition to his outfit in place. "This little bad boy will fix things in that area specifically. Just strap it on here around your neck, tap the right side, and voila! Instant head gear."

When the device was in place, Sora did as Tony instructed and tapped the right side of the collar. In an instant, a helmet slid up the back of his neck to his forehead, leaving a few tuffs of his hair sticking out at the sides, and after the helmet had reached his forehead, a blue visor slid down in front of his eyes. When the visor had slid into place, Sora soon found himself viewing several different readouts on a Heads-Up-Display, which held the Avengers logo in the top left corner, while the crown symbol on his necklace was in the top right. "Whoa," Sora gasped. "Well, it's not as cool as having a full suit, but it's definitely impressive."

"Glad you think so," Tony nodded as he held up a mirror so Sora could get a better look at himself. While the kid was admiring the latest addition to his new look, Tony went on to explain, "That helmet has a built in comm. device that's linked to the same frequency as your ID card, and even has a direct connection to JARVIS, should you need his help while you're out helping us save the world. If necessary, it will also help you to better target enemies, namely for when you finally get a handle on how your Keyblade shoots fire, ice, and whatever other kinds of things you can shoot from it. It can also cycle through various ranges of the visual spectrum, and has a scanner that's tuned to the energy signature of all the Heartless we've encountered so far. I've even programmed it so that it can automatically update that particular database if you ever encounter a new Heartless."

"This is so awesome, Tony. Thanks," Sora immediately said. "But, I don't think they'll let me wear this in class."

"Well not in its active state," Tony pointed out. "Just tap the same spot as before, or think at it, and the helmet will retract on its own. I would advise you to still wear this as often as possible though. We wouldn't want people to think that we're being irresponsible by letting you fly around on that flying bike of yours without a helmet."

"Got it," Sora nodded as he retracted the helmet, noticing that when he looked in the mirror, you could not really see the collar it came out of under his jacket, which proved to be something of a relief to him. "So is there any other armor pieces that you're making for me?"

"Probably some kind of armguards or something, but that's still in the works, and I'd like to focus on more important matters right now. Like figuring out who our mystery intruder was, preparing for my meeting with Simon tomorrow, and getting you to bed so that you don't oversleep and end up being late for your first day of high school, which you are still going to tomorrow, unless some world-ending crisis or something similar comes up."

"Awww," Sora whined again, but he still began his slow trudge up to bed all the same, knowing that he was not going to win this argument.

Just before he was out the door though, Tony suddenly remembered something and asked, "Hey, by the way Sora, what's your last name? The school has been asking me for it so they could finalize your enrollment. I mean, it's already been finalized, but I guess they just don't like having a student who doesn't have a last name."

Sora paused for a moment, having just realized he never told the others this before himself, and then turned to Tony and replied, "Hart. My full name is Sora Hart."

"…Seriously," Tony asked after a beat.

"What do you mean," Sora asked.

"You're fighting Heartless, you're supposed to protect the hearts of all worlds, and your last name is Heart," Tony asked with a small grin. "Tell you don't see why I would find that a little funny."

Sora thought about it for a minute before he finally conceded, "Okay, yeah, I guess that's fair, but just to be clear, my last name is spelled H-A-R-T, not H-E-A-R-T."

"Okay, okay. I got it. Now skedaddle to bed, young Hart," Tony said as he waved the kid away. "You've got a big day tomorrow."

"Yeah, a big day of torture," Sora grumbled. There was no way he was going to enjoy going to school, with or without having to just jump right in it after barely even having half of his summer vacation, and nothing was going to be changing that.

* * *

The very next morning, Sora was still complaining and trying everything he could think of to get out of going to high school, but despite his best efforts, he still ended up being driven to the front entrance of his new institute of education by Janet. Looking up at the place, Sora could tell that the building was big, probably even a few stories bigger than most schools should typically be, and the entrance into the courtyard was easily noticeable by the large archway with the school's name at the top. Looking the place over from here, Sora would admit that Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School looked impressive, but that was not changing his feelings about this whole situation any time soon. It did not help that Janet was using this opportunity to tease him for every second of the ride over, basically acting like a doting mother to him, much to his embarrassment. Now, one would wonder why Sora did not just fly over on his Keyblade Glider, and the answer to that is actually because Janet wanted to drive Sora to his first day of school. That, and she insisted that Sora would not make many real friends if he revealed he was an Avenger like that right off the bat. Sora would argue that it was silly to hide he was an Avenger by this point, since everyone in the world had likely seen his face by now, but at this point, he was starting to wonder why he was even bothering to argue with any of his teammates when it came to this whole situation.

"Now be a good boy, and have a good first day, kiddo," Janet cooed, continuing with the teasing as she put the car in park for a minute.

At that point, Sora had finally had enough of this, and said, "Janet, can you please stop saying things like that? You're starting to sound exactly like my mom, and its creepy."

"Are you saying you don't think I'd make a good mother," Janet questioned. Despite her attempts at sounding offended though, the small grin on her face gave her away easily.

"No, if anything I'm saying that you look more like you could be my older sister," Sora immediately revealed.

"Aw, so you think of me as an older sister? That's so sweet, Sora," Janet cooed once again, and this time, her expression did carry a bit of sincerity in it, despite the fact it still had a teasing feeling to it.

Sora just rolled his eyes, albeit playfully, and then asked once again, "Are you sure I have to do this? I mean, can't I come with you and Thor to bust that arms deal you were talking with Tony about at breakfast? From what I've heard about AIM, they sound like a pretty dangerous group."

"Pft, please," Janet scoffed. "They're just a bunch of geeks with some crazy toys. I think Thor and I can handle them. Besides, as superheroes, we need to set an example for people, and part of that means making sure that the youngest member of our team is properly educated. Now stop fighting it, and go enjoy your first day."

"'Enjoy my first day,' she says. You are forgetting that not only am I a freshman, but I'm also the new kid who won't know anybody," Sora reminded Janet, even though he still grabbed his backpack all the same.

"I doubt you'll have to worry about it that much. You're the kind of guy who can make friends with just about anyone, even if they're your worst enemy," Janet smirked in reply.

"Okay, okay," Sora sighed in defeat as he finally climbed out of the car. "I'll see you guys tonight then, assuming I survive."

Janet just waved goodbye to him after he closed the door, and then drove off, intending to return the very expensive car they had borrowed from Tony before heading out on her patrol, and Sora was left to just stare up at the intimidating building before he started his trek inside, hoping he could find the main office without any trouble or incidents. Thankfully, it did not seem like he was going to run into anything like that for the most part even after he had gotten into the building, as everyone was too busy with their own matters to really notice him, and if they did, Sora had just missed them doing so, as he was just trying to make his way through the busy hallways without running into anyone. Just as he was nearing the office though, his good luck finally ran out, and he accidentally bumped into someone, causing them to drop a few things.

Turning to see who he ran into, Sora immediately identified the girl as a cheerleader, mostly because she was wearing the uniform of one, and saw that she had long blonde hair and blue eyes, which were fixated on him in a very annoyed glare. That look alone quickly told him that she was probably one of those stuck-up princess types who followed the cliché high school cliques to the letter, and that any apologies would fall on deaf ears with her, but all the same, he still intended to at least make the attempt. "Sorry about that. I didn't see you," Sora started to say.

"Well maybe you should consider looking where you're going next time, loser," the blonde sneered in response, her voice sounding a lot like nails on a chalkboard to Sora.

"Hey, lay off, Sally. It was just an accident," one of the girl's friends admonished on Sora's behalf, making him turn to see a dark skinned girl with short hair in a yellow sweater and brown skirt. Looking around, Sora could also see a few other kids coming along as well, most of them being big guys in dark green letterman jacket, and about two other girls, one of which was a Latino girl also in the cheer-squad uniform, while the other was a girl with long hair in a red and a dark violet skirt. The girl who was just speaking to the stuck-up blonde then got a good look at Sora and asked, "Say, are you new here?"

"Yeah. First day, actually," Sora admitted.

"First day for some new Freshie, huh? You don't say," one the tall, blonde guys mused with a cocky grin. "And you're messing with Rand's girl? Not smart."

"Hey, I wasn't messing with anyone! I just got a little turned around trying to find the office, and didn't see her until it was too late," Sora hurriedly insisted, already knowing that one of these big jocks was likely to be Rand.

"Chill, kid. Flash's just messing with you. It's cool," a large, black man with a green cap reassured Sora. "In case you didn't already figure it out, I'm Rand. Rand Robertson. This guy riding your grill is Midtown's all-star quarterback, Flash Thompson, the big guy over here is Kenny Kong, and this is Hobbie Brown. And of course, you've already met my girlfriend, Sally Avril."

"Sorry about her, by the way. I'm pretty sure she didn't get her coffee this morning or something," the girl who had stood up for Sora a minute ago said. "By the way, I'm Glory Grant, Kenny's girlfriend, and this is Sha Shan Nguyen, Flash's girlfriend. And that's Liz Allen."

"Let me guess, she's Hobbie's girlfriend," Sora offered up.

"No. I'm single at the moment," Liz replied, her tone carrying a bit of sadness in it that was hard to miss.

"Oh, uh sorry," Sora quickly apologized. "Anyways, I'm Sora. Sora Hart. Any chance one of you guys could help me find the main office?"

"Sure, it's just down this hall to the right," Sha Shan offered with a polite smile, pointing in the direction that Sora needed to go in.

"Thanks," Sora nodded in reply with a grin, and he was about to head off in that direction when Rand suddenly stopped him.

"Say, are you sure we don't know you from somewhere? I feel like I've seen you before," Rand asked.

"I'm pretty sure I would remember meeting any of you guys before. I've got a pretty good memory," Sora laughed off.

"Well maybe not in person, but were you ever on the news or something? I ask because my dad's Editor-in-Chief at the Daily Bugle, so I hear about a lot of news stories when he comes home from work," Rand revealed.

"Really? Wait, isn't that the same paper that's known to be the only one ever able to get good pictures of Spider-Man," Sora asked, hoping that he would be able to deflect the question with that change in topic.

"Yeah. You a Spidey fan, too," Flash asked, a little too eagerly one might say.

"More like a fan of heroes in general," Sora admitted.

"Well, you should know that the guy who takes all those pictures actually goes to school here," Kenny said. "He could probably give you an autograph or something, assuming he actually talks to you. And that's a big if, seeing as he's been going out of his way to be alone ever since he and Liz broke up."

"Kenny," Glory hushed while elbowing him in the side, directing her boyfriend's attention to how Liz seemed to deflate a little more at that reminder.

"Oh…Uh, sorry."

The whole hallway suddenly seemed to become thick with the air of awkwardness that fell on them, and Sora figured that this was not a fire that he needed to fight right now, if ever, so he quickly excused himself, saying that he still needed to get his schedule from the office, thanked the group for their help, and took off with a run, barely catching Flash mutter to the others about how fast he appeared to be. As he finally reached his destination, Sora could not help but think that maybe Janet was right when she said he had a natural talent for making friends, at least if that little interaction just now was anything to go by. He had to put a pin in that for now, because he still needed to get his schedule from the principle and get to his first class before he was late. Unfortunately, he was only able to accomplish the first of those tasks, because the tardy bell immediately rang right when the principle had handed his schedule to him. Luckily, the principle was kind enough to write him a note for his first period teacher that explained his lateness, and Sora was soon off and running once again, only this time at a more sedated pace as he searched the hallways for the room number of his first class.

He soon breathed a sigh of relief when he finally found the right door, and after taking a deep breath to calm the rest of his nerves, he knocked and slowly entered the room, instantly garnering everyone's attention. "Sorry I'm late," Sora said to the room at large. "I have a note from the principle though."

When the teacher held out his hand, Sora immediately walked up and handed it to him. After reading the note for a minute, the teacher quickly smiled and said, "Oh, so you're our new student? Well, welcome to Midtown. I'm your biology teacher, Professor Aaron Warren. Why don't you take a moment to introduce yourself and find an empty seat."

Sora nodded in thanks before turning to the class and saying, "Hey everyone. I'm Sora Hart. Nice to meet you all."

He did not receive much more than silent nods or smiles in reply, but Sora just shrugged it off and quickly moved to find an empty seat. Thankfully, it did not take too long before he settled for an empty seat near the middle of the room next to a kid who looked to be about his age in a black hoodie and grey pants. "You don't mind if I sit here, do you?"

"Nah. Go for it," the kid replied with a smile. "Name's Miles by the way. Miles Morales."

"Nice to meet you, Miles," Sora nodded with a smile, and the two fell silent after that, turning most of their focus to the lesson at hand, with Sora thinking that maybe this school thing was going to be okay after all.

* * *

 _I was wrong. School still sucks,_ Sora thought a couple hours later after his class had let out, and that was only after the first class of the day, never mind the rest of the classes he had been through up until now. He nearly fell asleep from being bored out of his mind, and just about everything that the teachers were talking about went way over his head. Now Sora was not a complete idiot, he was actually something close to a studious student, but he had a feeling that Tony had signed him up for a class that was a little too hard for him. He probably could not blame Tony though, seeing as Stark had no idea just how good Sora's grades were back home, but all the same, he could have at least asked Sora about this before setting up the kid's schedule with the school. He was just glad that he could relax now that it was lunch time. The only thing that made it even better was that they could all enjoy lunch outside on the school's roof. Sure, there was an indoor cafeteria, but when the sun was shining and the skies were clear, Sora found no reason to stay inside if he had the option of being outside. The only problem now was finding a table to sit at.

While he was looking, Sora found himself thinking back to some things he had overheard a few kids saying while he was not only between classes but in class as well, namely things about the Avengers. While it was not too different from your typical bit of hero worship and kids saying how cool the team was, the thing that really had him hooked was the fact that so many of the stories seemed to center around him: the boy with spiky hair and a key-shaped weapon. From what he could tell, everyone was talking about how cool it was that someone that was around the age of the students here was part of a group like the Avengers, and it honestly made him smile a little while also admitting that Janet had been right to say that his popularity would have been based on his reputation as an Avenger alone if he had flown here this morning. Sora was not too fond of being friends with people who only hung out with him because of his reputation, but then again, he had never had to worry about that before now, so he did not let it bother him too much. If anything, he was more interested in how so many people were interested in giving him some kind of fancy codename like the most of his other teammates. He had heard people calling him a variety of things like the Samurai Key, Key Ronnin, or even Key-Swordsman. It was not like he was offended by it, but it did still make him think that maybe he did need a codename like some of his teammates did. He just had not thought about it until now because it never really seemed important. In fact, he was actually brainstorming ideas for a codename as he was scoping out the area for a table right this second.

After a minute or so, he quickly spotted one person in particular who was all by himself, and from where Sora was standing, it did not appear to be by choice, given the sad-looking expression on the other boy's face. The boy in question was dressed in a rather simple attire of a blue t-shirt over a grey long-sleeved one and brown pants, while his brown hair was kept in a rather messy fashion, meaning he either had not combed it, or he just let it get that way after getting here. Sora figured the guy seemed nice enough and decided to go over and sit with him, until someone suddenly grabbed his arm and started pulling him in another direction. When he turned to see who it was, he was greeted by an older looking girl in blue jeans and a blue shirt with a star that was a lighter shade of the same color on the center, while her long hair was brown in color, and she seemed be of Mexican ethnicity from what Sora could tell.

"Not a good idea to be sitting over there if you don't want to destroy any chances of a good social standing, kid, unless you're setting up a time for a tutoring session with the guy," the girl cautioned, her voice carrying a hint of an accent to it. "Parker's rumored to be the social pariah of the school."

"And…who're you," Sora asked, feeling a little annoyed with this random stranger telling him what to do and who to talk sit with.

Before the girl could reply, they both heard a familiar voice calling out to them, and turned to see Miles rushing over. "Yo Sora. I was hoping I'd catch you here. I see you've already met Anya, one of the cool upper classmen."

"You wish that was the case, Miles. The cool upperclassmen are all juniors or seniors. I'm still just a sophomore," Anaya playfully scoffed. She then turned back to the Keyblade Avenger and said, "So you're the infamous Sora that Miles was telling me about, huh? Nice to finally meet you. I'm Anya Corazon. I sometimes have a small study group with Miles when one of us needs help in a certain subject. He's the tech-wiz, and I'm the bio-wiz."

"Cool. Maybe one of you guys could help me out with some of my own school work, because a lot of the stuff we went over in Professor Warren's class made little sense to me," Sora nodded in understanding, accepting the offered handshake. He then glanced back at the boy he was about to approach earlier and asked, "So why did you say that I shouldn't sit with that guy over there?"

Miles looked to where Peter had indicated and then went into the explanation for Anya. "Well, I wasn't here last year, since I'm a freshman like you, but the word is that Parker went from Midtown's champion geek, to being the guy in the center of the most diverse group of friends, until finally landing a reputation as being bad luck for any sort of friendship. Apparently, he was dating Liz Allen for a bit, but when it became clear that he was more interested in other girls than her, she broke it off in a spectacular fashion that made everyone start treating him the plague or something."

"That's just the exaggerated story though," Anya waved off. Being the only one of this little trio who was actually attending at this school the previous year. "A lot of stuff happened to Parker last year, right to the point where it seemed like even being his friend was promising a roller coaster of drama that no one wanted to ride, and it had nothing to do with who he did or didn't date last year. From what I heard, he was actually going to try and hook up with his best friend, Gwen Stacy, but she turned him down in favor of his other best friend, Harry Osborn."

"Osborn? Like as in Norman Osborn of Oscorp," Sora asked.

"Yep, and his rep's even more messed up than Parker's, considering that he was playing on the football team while juiced. We had to hand over the championship because of him, so no one was really too fond of him for a long time, aside from Stacy and a couple of other people. Add in the fact that his dad died near the end of last school year after being revealed to be the Green Goblin, and well…I'm surprised that he hasn't snapped just like his dad clearly had," Anya reported.

"Doesn't Parker have any other friends, though," Sora asked.

"You would think that he would, being the Spider-Man photographer and all, but considering his two best friends are now dating each other, and that his next door neighbor, Mary Jane Watson is also best friends with his ex and used to go out with Liz Allen's older brother, he hasn't really managed to find anyone to really fit in with. Not that he ever really seems to try that much. He actually goes out of his way to avoid most people."

"I'm lucky he actually agreed to tutor me on the stuff that Anya couldn't help me out with," Miles piped in. "I mainly figured that it was because his family was struggling with bills and stuff at first, but given the distant attitude he was usually throwing out a majority of the time, now I'm not so sure. Of course, I guess his job is pretty demanding, so he could just be really tired. There's no way it's easy trying to take pictures of Spider-Man all the time."

"Well, maybe he just needs someone else to make an effort," Sora suggested, and he was soon resuming his trek over to Parker's table, ignoring Anya when she muttered to not say they did not warn him. Admittedly, Sora was kind of hoping to find and talk to the guy who took Spider-Man's pictures after hearing that said photographer went to school here, because he was hoping that he could set up a meeting for the Keyblade wielder to meet with Spidey and offer him a place on the Avengers. Hearing that he did not really have many friends at the moment for one reason or another just made it even more important for Sora to try and reach out to the guy.

When he finally reached Parker's table and sat down, it seemed as though the guy had either not noticed Sora or was just ignoring him. Sora was not sure which was the case, but he figured he would give the older student a minute or two, and when he did not respond, Sora finally let out a small cough to get Parker's attention. Hearing Sora's cough drew Parker's eyes up from his barely touched food, and from what he could see of the senior's eyes, Sora was quickly able to see the tell tales sings that this guy was really tired, and also had the look of someone who had not really had many friends around him for a while. "Is there something you needed," Parker finally asked.

"Well…Not really. I just wanted to make sure if it was okay to sit here," Sora replied, slightly unsure. He probably should have thought of something to say before trying to get Parker's attention.

"Sure, if you want, and if you don't mind destroying your social reputation," Parker shrugged, turning his gaze down again and acting like he did not care.

Sora was a little put out at first, but quickly shook it off so he could press on. "I'm Sora, by the way. Sora Hart. I just started here today."

"That would explain a lot," Parker muttered under his breath. He then glanced up again and said, "Peter Parker, and before you ask, yeah, I'm the guy who takes Spider-Man's pictures, the same guy that everyone thought was Spider-Man a few months ago, even though they shouldn't have thought that since the information came from a supervillain, and no, I can't help you get Spidey's autograph."

"I'm guessing you get those questions a lot," Sora noted with a small smile.

"From just about every other new student that finds out about me, yeah," Peter admitted. "Though these days, most of them tend to avoid me because of the rumors that have been going around since my breakup with Liz."

"Well I'm not one for listening to rumors, and besides, from what Miles told me, I don't think he feels that way."

Peter let out a dry chuckle before saying, "He only thinks that because I helped him out with a couple of assignments. It's not like we're best friends or something. Besides, these days, being friends with me only leads others to get hurt."

"Hey, I don't get hurt that easily, so I don't think you have to worry about that," Sora reassured him.

"I wasn't talking about physically, and we literally just met. How could we be friends already," Peter asked.

"Why wouldn't we be? Besides, you seem like a cool guy to me, and you look like you could use some more friends right now," Sora gently argued, his smile not fading even a little bit.

Peter just stared at Sora for a minute, his eyes showing just how much disbelief had been instilled in him by the spiky-haired teen, and eventually, he had to let out a small smirk as he asked, "You're one of those glass-half-full type of guys aren't you?" When Sora gave him a confused look in response, Peter explained, "You know, the kind of person who's incredibly optimistic no matter what."

"Oh, well to be fair, considering the situation I'm in, I kinda have to be," Sora shrugged in response.

"What's that supposed to mean," Peter asked.

Now Sora was stuck. He was not entirely sure how to explain his situation to Peter without revealing too much. After all, saying that he was from another world that was consumed by darkness about a week ago was grounds for either being called crazy or helping the older student figure out that he was the youngest member of the Avengers. Thankfully, it did not last long, as he soon remembered the cover story that Tony and the others helped him come up with. "You see, I'm from a small island very far away from here, and it was recently attacked by some unknown force. As far as I know, I'm the only one who made it out alive, and my home's probably long gone."

"Oh man. I'm so sorry to hear that," Peter immediately said, his voice truly sympathetic.

"It's okay," Sora waved off. "Besides, some friends are letting me stay with them while helping me to look for anyone from back home, so there's always that silver lining. Besides, I also got here just in time to see the Avengers form and save the city, so how cool is that, right?"

"Yeah…Sure," Peter shrugged, but his voice was nowhere near as joyous as his words should have been.

Sora quickly noticed that, and had to ask, "What's wrong? Do you not like the Avengers or something?"

"No, it's not that. I'm glad to see that there's now a bunch of heroes coming together to protect the world, but from where I'm sitting, it looks like they're only worrying about the escaped supervillains and bigger threats while ignoring the little guys," Peter revealed, his tone not quite agitated, but still clearly criticizing. "I mean, I get that it probably doesn't seem like a big deal to guys like Stark or Thor, but you'd think that someone like Captain America, Wasp, or even that Key-Swordsman guy, or whatever his name is would take at least a little time out of their day to help stop a mugger or something instead of just leaving that to the cops or Spider-Man. Besides, their current popularity and public approval is not gonna last."

He hated to admit it, but Sora knew that Peter had a point. The Keyblade wielder had been so busy with worrying about the Heartless, supervillains, and finding both his friends and the Keyhole of this world that he had not really thought about doing anything else while he was here. It only made sense for him to help out if he had the ability to do so, and Steve and Janet would probably agree with him on that, but it was not like they could be everywhere and solve every problem in the world. The Avengers were formed to recapture the supervillains that had escaped during the Breakout, along with any other bad guys that were too much for others to handle, while also working to protect this world from the Heartless, so that should mean that the cops and what Tony classified as small-time heroes would be able to handle the simpler stuff. Besides, Sora was still learning how to use his Keyblade, and about all the different things he could do with it, so he was not entirely sure if he would be able to stop a normal bad guy without hurting the criminal in the process.

Even with all of that in mind, the last thing that Peter had said stuck out to Sora more than anything else. "Why do you think that the Avengers' popularity won't last?"

"Dude, Spidey's been around for over a year now, and in barely more than half that time, people had started flip-flopping between calling him a hero, a menace, or a threat, with or without the stuff that the Bugle prints. People like heroes okay at first, but after a while, they start to look at them in a different light. Some people will even blame the heroes for some bad thing that had happened to them as a result of that hero's actions, even if there's no real reason to," Peter explained, almost sounding like it should have been obvious. "Not only that, but do you really think that after he's saved the day and gone home, Spidey's able to just live it up in luxury? I've heard him complaining about repairing his costume and how much it costs to make his webs more times than I can count while taking pictures of him for the Bugle, so I highly doubt he's got it easy outside of his suit."

Sora had to admit that Peter probably had a point there. He had seen more than a few articles from the Bugle that had painted Spider-Man in a less than favorable light, so who was to say that the same would not happen to him or the rest of the Avengers eventually, be it individually or as a whole? Not only that, but he had not really thought about how someone without the resources he and his teammates had would be able to manage being a hero while maintaining a secret identity. Even though he was trying to blend in on his first day so that he would make some real friends as opposed to ones who only wanted to hang out because he was an Avenger, he did not actually have a secret identity, and neither did any of his teammates, so there was no way of really knowing what Spider-Man must have to go through in order to keep it. Now that he thought about it, Sora could not help but wonder if anyone even knew who Spider-Man was behind his mask, be it friends, family, or even enemies. He remembered reading that one guy, Venom had seemed confident that Spider-Man was Peter Parker, but he also knew that rumor was eventually killed off a few days later, so he doubted that any bad guys knew who Spider-Man was under the mask.

One thing really stuck out to Sora though, and that was how certain Peter seemed to be about all of this, and the Keyblade wielder just had to call him out on that. "You know, you sound like you know Spidey really well. Are you sure you two aren't friends or something?"

"Uh, no," Peter instantly protested, a little too quickly in Sora's opinion. Peter must have realized this, because he quickly back-tracked and tried to calmly add, "I mean, sure I take his picture for the Bugle, but we're not all that well acquainted or anything. I'll admit he has sometimes called me on my cell when he's about to fight after seeing the first pictures I turned into the Bugle, but it's always from a blocked number. I don't think he really trusts me all that much to be honest."

It may have been a pretty decent story, but it was still given so quickly that Sora was almost sure that it was a lie. He probably would have called Peter out on it, but considering he seemed to be gaining a little ground in becoming Parker's friend, and that he did not know Peter too well yet, Sora figured it was best to keep his mouth shut for now. Of course, there was also the fact that before he could think about calling Peter out on his little story, something suddenly came crashing down on the middle of the roof-top eating area, scaring several students who quickly scattered away from the crash site. As the smoke cleared, Sora and Peter both shot up from their seats at the sight of a large, cat-man in a hunter's get up growling down at any students who were still nearby, and he soon let out a loud, primal roar that made anyone who was still too close for comfort scramble away like lightning. Next to the massive cat hybrid was a man in a green suit and purple cape, with a glass orb covering his whole head, while on the other side of the cat was the only normal looking person of this little trio. This third individual was a large man in grey pants, a green-striped shirt, and brown boots, and his classification as normal quickly went out the window when he suddenly shifted both of his hands into a pair of large hammers that seemed to be made out of sand.

"Spider-Man! Show yourself and face Kraven," the cat-man roared. "You cannot hide. Kraven knows you are here. Your scent is all over this school!"

"And I'm gonna kick your butt just for making us come to a school to find you, Spidey," the man with sand-hammer hands said, his legs quickly turning to sand as well as he seemed to glide a little closer to the fleeing students. "I swear, the best day of my life was when I left school to take my first shot at getting a big score."

"That explains so much," the fish-bowl headed man muttered as he waved his hands forward and chanted something in a language that Sora did not recognize. A moment later, a green cloud of mist appeared over the school building, and few flashes of lightning were soon raining down around them. Sora did not miss how nothing seemed to be damaged by the lightning strikes, but he did miss Peter ducking away while no one was paying attention.

Another thing Sora did not miss was that Miles was suddenly charging right at this trio of villain with a lunch tray in hand, which he was clearly intending to use as a blunt weapon. He tried to call out for Miles to stop, but his classmate had already hit the man in green with the tray, only for it to go right through the guy as the part of his body that was struck turned to sand before reforming again. The bigger guy looked down at Miles with a deadpanned expression and asked, "Really? Did you seriously think you could hurt the Sandman with a lunch tray?"

"Well then how about we try this instead," Anya's voice suddenly called out, and when Sandman turned towards the girl, his face was quickly covered in ketchup and mustard, blinding him long enough for Anya to run up and start pulling Miles out of the way. They did not get too far, as the fish-bowl head waved his hands at the two while uttering another unknown word, and both of Sora's new friends suddenly dropped to their knees looking incredibly drowsy.

"Sorry to say, but you cannot escape from the power of Mysterio and his allies that easily children. To think that you would succeed in this endeavor is an incredible folly on your part. However, Mysterio will admit that your courage is admirable, so Mysterio will grant you a swift end," the now very-well-identified Mysterio remarked as he raised his hands at the two.

"I'd just settle for you to stop talking in the third person," Miles groaned sleepily, barely even reacting that much when Anya's head suddenly dropped onto his shoulder for support.

Before Mysterio could launch his next attack, Sora decided it was time to make his move, and immediately started racing over while he shouted, "Hey! Leave my friends alone, you creep!"

The three villains all turned just in time to see Sora springboard into the air off a table, and then summon his Keyblade while in midair, which he immediately swung down at Mysterio, knocking the illusionist away from Miles and Anya just in time. When Sora stood up again, he quickly dropped into a battle stance and narrowed his focus on the three villains, only just barely noticing the gasps of surprise and looks of shock that his classmates and new friends were all sending his way. That did not mean he did not hear any of them though.

"No way," Anya gaped. "Miles, how come you didn't tell me your new friend was the Key Fighter of the Avengers?"

"Because I only just found out, too," Miles admitted, completely shell-shocked.

"You mean that new dweeb is an Avenger," Sally half-shrieked from where she was hiding behind a nearby table with the rest of the guys that had first met Sora at the start of the day.

"I knew he looked familiar," Rand silently cheered.

"No kidding. I can't believe we didn't figure it out sooner. The spiky hair should've been a dead give-away," Flash added with a grin.

When the three bad guys turned their attention to Sora, Kraven could only smirk in response while Sandman looked a little worried. Mysterio's expression remained unknown since his face was still hidden from view. "An Avenger. Well now, this may prove to be an even greater challenge than Kraven had wished for," the cat-man grinned excitedly.

"Whoa, whoa! Nu-uh! I didn't sign up to take on the Avengers," Sandman immediately protested.

"Oh please, don't embarrass us, Marko. He may be an Avenger, but he is still just a boy with a ridiculous weapon. He is no more a match for our combined might than Spider-Man would be," Mysterio scoffed.

Sora just rolled his eyes at that last remark before glancing to Miles and Anya as he said, "You guys get to safety. I'll handle this little circus show."

"Huh? Oh, yeah! Sure thing, Sora, err, Mister Avenger…Key…guy," Miles stuttered, suddenly not sure how to refer to Sora.

Sora merely smiled in response and said, "Just Sora is fine, Miles. After all, we're friends, remember?"

Miles silently confirmed that by returning the smile with one of his own, and immediately helped Anya get away from the fight that was about to happen. They had done so just in time soon, because Sora was suddenly hit in the side by a blast of what he could only assume was magic, since it felt so much like the ones that Enchantress had thrown at him back when they first met. After crashing through a few lunch tables, Sora managed to pull himself up again and looked to see who had just pulled a sneak attack on him, only to pause in confusion at what he saw. The individual in question was not someone that he recognized, but for some reason, his attire felt familiar to Sora. This new individual seemed to only be slightly taller than Sora, probably close to Riku's height if Sora had to guess, and wore a tight body suit that consisted mainly of a black and purple material that had a strong resemblance to muscle tissue, which turned to dark red at the wrists, giving it an almost organic look. A white cloth with jagged, almost ripped edges was tied around his waist, opening at the front and secured by a purple belt, while a pair of purple gloves covered his hands and were tucked into the suit, and a pair of purple boots and shin guards that faded to the black on the rest of his legs adorned his feet. The chest area of this stranger's suit was a purple-blue color with a Heart-shaped emblem in the center that looked just like the Heartless emblem, save for the fact that it lacked the spiked, criss-crossing bars on the inside. To round out this stranger's outfit, he wore a silver helmet covered with dark glass, keeping his face hidden from view.

The stranger just stared at Sora for a minute before turning his head to the trio of villains and said in a deep, heavily distorted voice, "I thought I told you to leave the Keyblade wielder to me if you encountered him. You don't possess the means of fighting him like I do."

Sora was not sure if that was this guy's actual voice or if it was something he was doing to mask his real voice, but right now, the wielder of Kingdom Key did not care. All he knew was that this guy had just taken a cheap shot at him, and was clearly gunning for him for whatever reason. That was all he needed to jump back onto his feet and hold his Keyblade at the ready while he demanded, "Who are you, and how do you know about the Keyblade?"

The stranger turned back to Sora and chuckled, "I think the better question would be how does anyone _not_ know about it, considering how many people around here probably already do by now."

"I said who are you," Sora repeated, showing that he was not in the mood for any games.

"My name is of no real consequence at the moment, but since everyone around here seems so fond of colorful titles…Why don't you just call me Night Hunter, and you have something that belongs to me, Sora," the stranger revealed, worrying Sora a little with that last bit of information.

"What're you talking about, and how do you know my name," Sora asked.

"Sorry; no spoilers," Night Hunter mocked. "But to answer your first question…well, let's just say I think we should let the Keyblade return to its true master."

Night Hunter then held his hand forward, and the next thing he knew, Sora felt the Kingdom Key shaking in his grip. Before he knew what was happening, Sora suddenly found himself struggling to keep the Keyblade in his hand as it jerked forward and moved towards the newly arrived villain, like it was being called over to Night Hunter or something, and it was pretty clear who was causing that to happen. "What're you doing?"

"I'm simply calling my Keyblade back to me," Night Hunter shrugged like it was no big deal, not lowering his hand at all, as Sora struggled to keep his hold on Kingdom Key. "You see, you're not truly the one that the Keyblade chose. You're just the delivery boy meant to pass it over to its true master, so like I said, I'll be taking what's rightfully mine."

Sora glared in response to this, refusing to believe that this guy was supposed to be the true master of Kingdom Key, but when he saw the Keyblade start flashing like it was about to disappear from his hand, he started to worry that might be the case. At least, he would have been worrying had he not felt something from Kingdom Key just as it was starting to vanish. He would not exactly describe it as feelings exactly, but it was most definitely the closest thing he could compare it to, because for a moment as it was appearing to nearly vanish, Sora could have sworn that the Kingdom Key was afraid of being pulled over to this stranger. Knowing that the Keyblade was afraid of the dark man before him, Sora immediately knew that Night Hunter's claims had to be a lie, and he was soon mentally reassuring Kingdom Key that he would not let this strange individual take it away from him, while fixing a defiant glare on Night Hunter as he started to pull back harder than ever.

Just seconds after Sora had given his Keyblade that reassurance, a massive light seemed to erupt from the Keyblade that caused everyone to make some attempt at shielding their eyes until it died down. When it finally did, everyone looked to see that Night Hunter and Sora had blown a few feet back from where they had previously been standing, and the former appeared slightly disoriented while the latter was still standing strong, with Keyblade firmly in hand. "Impossible," Night Hunter whispered, clearly angered by this sudden change. "The Keyblade is mine! Why is it remaining with a weakling like you?!"

"Guess you were misinformed about who the Keyblade's wielder should be, at least as far as Kingdom Key goes," Sora retorted with a confident smirk. "So if you want my Keyblade, you'll have to go through me first."

"That can be arranged quite easily, Sora," Night Hunter promised, and with a wave of his hand, a dark sword with a blade shaped like a demonic wing appeared in his hand in a haze of shadows. The blade was not the most creepy thing about this odd sword though, as both Sora and some of the other Midtown students could have sworn that they saw a blue eye with a cat-like iris in the handle, while the handle itself appeared to consist of dark braids, at least from what anyone could see of it while it rested in Night Hunter's hand.

Just as it seemed like the two were about to engage in battle, with Sora even going so far as to activate his new helmet, another new voice interrupted, only this one sounded far more cheery when he spoke, and most likely belonged to someone on Sora's side, given what he had said. "So let me get this straight. You're getting all upset over how this guy's sword, which looks like a giant skeleton key, won't just come jumping into your hands, and you're acting like you're willing to kill him for it, when you've already got an awesome looking sword like that one in your hand? Man, it must be your first day as a supervillain, because you clearly do not know how to accessorize right. I mean, that sword you've currently got clearly suits you way more since it matches with your look perfectly."

Just about everyone's gaze was directed upwards and onto the individual who had spoken, and they were all soon gazing upon a figure who was sitting above them all on the side of the wall. Even without seeing him display his ability to stick to walls, or any of his other skills and powers, no one needed many more clues than the red and blue, web-themed outfit with a spider-symbol on the front and back to guess who this was. "SPIDER-MAN," Kraven, Mysterio, and Sandman all shouted at the sight of the hero.

"Ah, I never get tired of hearing that reaction," Spider-Man sighed whimsically as he spun down from the wall and landed next to Sora. "Although, I gotta admit, I'm a little disappointed. I always kinda hoped my first real superhero team-up would be against someone like Doc Ock, Venom, or even the entire Sinister Six, and that it would be with Iron Man or the Fantastic Four, but I guess I can settle for taking on the Threatening Three with the rookie hero of the Avengers."

"Hey! Who're you calling a rookie," Sora demanded.

"You, kid. I mean, even Wasp has been around and in the hero business longer than you, at least as far as I know. Are you even old enough to drive, yet," Spidey asked.

"At least I'm actually part of the Avengers, and a founding member at that," Sora countered.

"Touché, Samurai Key," Spider-Man conceded.

"Okay seriously, what is with this whole nicknaming thing everybody seems to want to do," Sora asked, dropping his battle stance for a moment to show how frustrated he was starting to get in regards to the subject. "My name is Sora, so why can't people just call me that? It's not like I'm making an effort to hide my identity or something like you are."

"Which you really should be doing, if you ask me," Spider-Man stated. "I mean, I get that you're part of the Avengers and everything, but if you want to keep the people you care about from getting hurt, you really should have considered wearing that helmet of yours before now. Or at least doing something about your hair that did not make you so easy to recognize."

"Hey, leave my hairstyle alone! Everybody else likes it and says its distinctly me. Besides, I've tried combing it before, and not only did it fail to work, but it ended up breaking every single brush and comb that my family, and my best friend's family owned," Sora revealed.

Spider-Man immediately let out a small laugh at that until he realized that Sora was not laughing with him, and asked, "Wait, are you serious? That actually happened?"

"It's not a day that I can easily forget, considering I had to get what was left of those brushes surgically removed from my hair," Sora grumbled.

"Wow. And I thought my life was weird," was all Spider-Man could say in response.

"Trust me, when it comes to the weirdness in my life, you don't know the half of it," Sora cautioned, his mind instantly going to everything that had just happened over the course of this previous week.

"Don't ignore us, you pathetic fools," Night Hunter angrily shouted, his mood easily reflected by the three villains who were now glaring at both Spider-Man and Sora. The first response he received to that demand though, was a glob of webbing to his helmet, which no doubt left him blinded, given how he was scrambling to scrape the sticky substance off of the dark mask.

"Hey, do you mind? We're trying to have a conversation here," Spidey quipped, not lowering the hand he used to shoot the web from right away. "I swear, bad guys are just getting more and more rude every day. I can't even try to make simple small talk with someone without some tool telling me to shut up. It's like they don't want to hear what I have to say."

"Wow, now that is just so weird," Sora commented, seeing what Spidey was doing and immediately joining in on it, while trying his best to keep his knowing smile as small as possible. "I mean, as superheroes, we do tend to have some very important wisdom that needs to be imparted to others so they can lead better and safer lives, so why wouldn't someone want to listen to you?"

"I know, right," Spider-Man agreed rather enthusiastically. "I'll bet you it probably has something to do with our outfits or something. I mean, you probably don't have that problem yourself, but people do often make fun of my costume, so I can't help but figure that's a factor."

"Nah, I don't think that's it. Personally, I think your suit looks pretty cool. Works well with you, has that whole spider-theme to it, and it's in classic red and blue. A lot of great heroes wear those colors, right," Sora disputed, throwing in a little praise while he was at it. "Out of curiosity, where did you get your suit from? I mean, mine was made by Janet and Tony, but I can't help but be curious as to where other heroes would get their suits from."

"Oh, well uh…I actually made it myself. I know, not the most manly thing to do, but hey, if it helps me keep my secret identity, then learning how to sew was necessary," Spider-Man revealed, rubbing the back of his head in slight embarrassment at this admittance.

"Well you must be pretty good then if you could make something like this without any extra help," Sora complimented.

At this point, the villains had finally had enough. Night Hunter especially, because he finally ripped the webs free from his helmet, he growled loudly and shouted, "All right, that's it! You two want to joke around? I'll give you something to laugh about!"

The dark swordsman then clutched a hand to the heart-shaped emblem on his chest, as said symbol glowed with a faint, shadowy aura, and when he thrust his hand out again, a large cloud of smoke burst forth before impacting the ground on the football field behind the school. When the two heroes turned, they both went wide-eyed at the sight of a massive monster that looked similar to a knight. The very bizarre thing was that its arms, legs, and head all seemed to be disconnected from the rest of the hourglass-shaped body, but that was only a small factor in comparison to the three, clawed fingers it possessed on its large arms, or the hammer like feet it had on its otherwise short legs. While Spider-Man was freaking out quite a bit at the sight of this monstrosity, on the inside at least, Sora could only narrow his eyes into a glare when he spotted a far-too-familiar, heart-shaped emblem emblazoned on the center of this massive beast's torso.

"Okay, safe to say we've ruffled their feathers quite a bit, but I did not expect doing so would lead to him creating…THAT! What the heck even is that thing," Spidey questioned, hoping that Sora had an answer.

Thankfully, he did, and it came in one word. "Heartless."

Spider-Man was silent for a moment before he looked to Sora and said, "Geez, dude. I know that it isn't exactly the most friendly-looking thing out there, and it's probably going to attack us, but that's no reason to label it with something like that."

"No, not that kind of heartless. It's literally called a Heartless," Sora quickly explained. "Creatures of darkness that act like animals and prey on the darkness in the hearts of others. They consume other people's hearts to create more Heartless and grow stronger."

"Okay, so keep it away from civilians, and don't let it get the chance to tag you," Spidey summarized in order to show his understanding. He then asked the all-important question. "Any suggestions on how to stop it?"

"My Keyblade is one of the only things that can effectively destroy them, so you keep these other guys busy while I handle that thing," Sora told him, and he prepared to jump down from the roof and summon his Keyblade Glider in order to fly over to the Heartless, only for a sudden rush of sand to pull him back.

"Aw, and I thought you were gonna stick around to play with us," Sandman mocked, suddenly feeling more confident now that Night Hunter and his recently-summoned Heartless had joined them. His face was soon filled with webbing from Spider-Man, making him lose concentration long enough to drop Sora.

"Sorry, Marko, but you've gotta deal with me before you can get to the rookie hero and youngest Avenger," Spider-Man quipped, spinning his way over to his old adversary as he did.

"A challenge that Kraven shall gladly take," the cat-hunter of the trio declared as he rushed Spider-Man, tackling the web-swinger in mid-air.

Kraven was not alone in his attack, because Mysterio was soon following the hunter's charge with a blast of energy from his fingers, directed at the wall-crawler. Spider-Man probably would have been hit had Sora not jumped in at just the last second to deflect the blast with his Keyblade. He then spun around to strike Kraven with Kingdom Key, and upon getting hit, Kraven immediately released Spidey, allowing the web-head to flip away from the oversized cat. Spidey then put his full focus on his three bad guys, though mostly in the case of the ones he could actually hit without getting incredibly creative, while Sora made another attempt at getting to the massive Heartless. Sora did not get any luckier in reaching it than the last time, only this time, Night Hunter was the one who intercepted Sora by taking a swing at him with his demonic sword. Sora managed to block the villain's strike before I could hit, and just glared at this mystery masked man before shoving him back again and beginning a full-on sword battle with Night Hunter.

Calling the little duel that broke out between Sora and Night Hunter a sword battle was probably not all that accurate, though. If anything, it would have been more accurate to call it a one-sided beat down, because Night Hunter was clearly much more skilled than Sora, and that was without using any of his extraordinary powers. For every one of Sora's swings, Night Hunter had a parry or a deflect ready and waiting to use, and not only that, but even Sora's own defense was not able to stand up to Night Hunter for very long, because the masked villain seemed to find a weak point or a hole in it every time, often resulting in Sora getting hit pretty hard. With how easily Night Hunter was able to best him, Sora was starting to feel like the villain somehow knew his fighting style almost perfectly. Sora was not about to kid himself into thinking that he was a master swordsman or anything, but from what he could tell, neither was Night Hunter, even if his technique was much more polished and refined, so it only made sense that Sora would assume that Night Hunter had studied up on Sora in order to gain an upper hand against him in a fight. The thing that really threw him off though, was that somehow Night Hunter's fighting style actually felt a little familiar to Sora as well. Do not ask Sora why that seemed to be the case, because he could not really tell you for sure. Thinking about this made Sora wonder if he really did know the person behind Night Hunter's mask somehow, and it certainly lined up with how the guy was talking like they knew each other earlier, albeit in a less than friendly manner, but that did not make it any easier for Sora to place who this guy could be.

Sora was quickly reminded that thinking about such things in the middle of a fight was a bad idea, because the second he took his mind away from the fight, he left himself open for Night Hunter to blast him back into the wall, near the door where several students had previously fled through or were now taking cover behind. Night Hunter must have been smirking behind his mask as he slowly approached, and it honestly disturbed Sora how easily he could imagine said look, but just as he was about to reach Sora, he was suddenly hit in the head with a burger of all things. He looked at the messy remains of the sandwich before turning his head towards the direction it had come from along with Sora, who was just staring in disbelief wondering if that had actually just happened. When the two laid eyes on the thrower, they quickly spotted a girl with long blonde hair dressed in a white shirt under an orange vest, a black skirt, black stockings that went up to her knees, an orange head band that helped keep her bangs out of her face, and brown shoes. Despite the fact that her bright, crystal blue eyes were glaring daggers at Night Hunter, neither Avenger nor villain were able to believe that she had just done that.

After another minute or so, Night Hunter finally said, "That…was a very stupid move, Blondie. You realize that, right?"

"Yeah, well so is attacking a school, as well as teaming up with Spider-Man's villains. Now leave both Spidey and Key-Fighter alone," the blonde retorted, her hand already reaching for another bit of cafeteria food to throw.

Someone else beat her to the punch though, as another glob of food was suddenly thrown at Night Hunter's back, and when the two turned just in time to get a spray of soda right into the face of his mask, courtesy of Anya, while Miles readied another food projectile for action. "You heard, Stacy, Diablo. Leave our friend alone," Anya shouted while shaking another soda can.

Night Hunter was quickly getting annoyed, but he was also being easily distracted, and Sora was able to use that to his advantage. While his two new friends and the girl Anya called Stacy were still peppering Night Hunter with food, Sora took a page out of Riku's book, and flipped himself to his feet, kicking Night Hunter in chest as he did. He may have always hated it when Riku did it to him during their spars, but Sora would definitely admit that it was effective. Night Hunter was a bit disoriented by Sora's attack, and as such, Sora was able to rush forward and smack him across the roof with his Keyblade, right into Sandman. Sora found it a little odd that the living beach was not taking part in the fight too much, while Kraven and Mysterio were so intent on dealing with Spider-Man, but he was not complaining too much right now, and he doubted that Spidey was either. Especially since there was still the matter of a certain, large Heartless to address. Sora was just about to make a dash for said Heartless, when Night Hunter slowly stood up again, and he was quickly dropping back into a battle stance, ready for whatever the villain would try next.

What he did not expect was for Night Hunter to just laugh a little and say, "So the big tough Avenger needs to be saved by a trio of kids. Pathetic." A then snapped his fingers, and his sword disappeared while a black portal appeared behind him, and he slowly walked backwards into it while leaving Sora with one last warning. "We'll meet again, Samurai Key. But for now, consider yourself on probation. Though, if you defeat the Guard Armor, perhaps you'll get off early."

With that, Night Hunter disappeared, and his portal vanished soon after, leaving Sora to just stare at where his newest enemy had previously been in confusion. He quickly shook it off though at the sounds of shifting sand and Spider-Man's webs, and he immediately returned his attention to what was going on right now. Before he did anything else though, he looked to his two new friends and the other girl so he could address them. "Appreciate the help, but you really shouldn't be here right now."

"Why? So we could wait outside until we heard you got the crap beaten out of you or worse later," Miles asked. "Like that was going to happen."

"Besides, Spidey's saved this school and a lot of our lives several times over, my own included. If we can help out, even a little, then why shouldn't we," Stacy stated with her arms crossed and a look on her face that dared Sora to argue with her.

Sora had to admit that she had a point, so he just nodded in reluctant admittance of this, and said, "Okay, fair enough, but next time, maybe just go about it the same way anyone else would? After all, there are better, less-life-risking ways to show someone you're grateful to them. Now you guys get out of here so I can help Spidey take down these other guys and that Heartless down there."

"You got it, Sora," Anya nodded, and she quickly lead both Miles and Stacy through the door back into the school so they could evacuate to safety with the other students.

With his friends now in the clear, Sora quickly surveyed the area in order to get a feel for things and help decide what he should do next. From where he was, Spidey seemed to be handling Kraven and Mysterio pretty well, while Sandman either seemed hesitant or too slow to try and help his allies. Given Spider-Man's experience, Sora was sure that the web-swinger could handle them, and it looked like Spidey was trying to get the villains out of the school and out onto the street, or down to ground level at least. With that in mind, Sora figured it would be better for him to focus on the Heartless, and now that Night Hunter had vanished, there was nothing to keep him from going after this Guard Armor thing. His decision set, Sora raced to the edge of the roof again, and this time, managed to jump down and summon his Keyblade Glider. He only kept it out for a little bit, but that was all he needed to move in close to the massive monster before changing the flying bike back into a Keyblade, which he immediately swung straight down the middle of the Guard Armor.

When he turned to observe his handiwork, Sora was shocked to see that the Guard Armor did not appeared to be harmed at all. He was sure that it would just be destroyed the minute he hit it with his Keyblade like any other Heartless had been, but from where Sora was standing, it looked like he had not even scratched the thing. Sora quickly shook it off and made to charge the Guard Armor again, when something suddenly slammed into him from the side. The something in question was actually Spider-Man, who had succeeded in drawing the other villains down to the ground, but only because Kraven had thrown him down there, and he had barely saved himself from becoming street pizza by slinging out a web-line at the last minute. He had mainly slammed into Sora because he was not able to put on the brakes fast enough, so now, he was jumbled up in a mess alongside Sora.

"So, how's your day going," Spidey asked once they untangled themselves.

"Oh you know. Got a new archenemy who apparently knows me despite the fact I have no clue who he is, my first day of school is turning into even more of a nightmare than I thought it was going to be, and I've got a massive Heartless that's turning out to be harder to kill than the normal ones to deal with. So, I'd say my day's just peachy. How about you," Sora quipped in reply.

"Eh, I've had better, so I guess we're pretty much in the same sinking boat," Spidey shrugged. A minute later, Kraven and Mysterio dropped down near them, standing on the one side of the heroes, while the Guard Armor remained on the opposite side, and looking just as dangerously menacing as the Heartless. "And it looks like its drowning even faster."

Looking at their surroundings, Sora found himself once again wishing he understood how he did some of the more crazy things that were possible with his Keyblade, namely freezing someone in place like he had Captain America when they first met, but it did not look like he was going to get very many hints right now, and at the moment, he did not have the time to pause, breathe, and attempt to focus. Just when he had thought that, a sharp pain suddenly ran through his head, much like the one he had when he learned about the Keyblade Glider, and next thing that Sora knew, his surroundings had started becoming hazy, then started slowly shifting and changing, while the people in the area began to fade away from view, until at long last, he found himself watching something else entirely.

* * *

 _Despite the calm, serene surroundings, which included the very strange, yet magnificent castle on the mountain behind him, he was feeling very frustrated, a fact that was only punctuated by how he punched the ground in frustration after he had dropped to his knees in exhaustion. "Why can't I get this," the young boy shouted. What he did not expect was that his cries would elicit a small giggle from behind him. Hearing that particular giggle made him freeze a little, because he immediately recognized it, and immediately turned to see that a certain blue-haired woman was standing there with a hand trying to hide her smile. "Aqua! How…How long have you been standing there?"_

 _"Long enough to see you completely drain yourself while practicing magic," Aqua shamelessly admitted with a kind smile. She then walked over and knelt down to his level, her smile never wavering, even as she ruffled the hair of her friend. "You know that getting upset isn't going to help you master your magic. You need to keep a calm mind, otherwise every bit of your inner strength could be drained by even the simplest of spells. Kinda like the first time you tried using Fire, remember?"_

 _"I know, I know, but no matter what I do, I can't keep focused long enough, and I get frustrated when my best spells come out like they're just thin air," he retorted. He then sighed and said, "I wish this stuff came as easy to me as it does you and Terra."_

 _"Me, I can understand, but Terra? Were you watching the same thing as me the last time he tried to cast something more than Thundaga, because I could've sworn it looked like he ended up frying his own butt instead of the targets," Aqua lightly joked, earning her a laugh from her friend. "Don't worry, everyone has a different approach when it comes to learning magic. You just need to figure out yours."_

 _"Well there's gotta be something that's similar for everyone, because I've been trying to figure out what mine is without any luck," he protested._

 _Aqua hummed in response to this, and placed a hand to her chin in thought, until she smiled and said, "Well, there is one thing: Master Eraqus once told me that many Keyblade wielders will think about the things that matter to them most in order to center their inner strength and control their magic, namely that one thing that allows them to remain in the light. Maybe if you try thinking of what's most important to you, you'll be able to handle it. After that, it's just a simple matter of remembering that magic is really as simple as wanting something to happen."_

 _"Are you sure, Aqua," he asked, still sounding unsure._

 _"Hey, you should at least try it before writing it off, Ven," Aqua jokingly scolded with a playful shove, just before everything went white again._

* * *

"SORA," was the other thing that drew Sora out of his vision, along with hearing what Aqua had just called…him? It was him who had been through that, right? It looked and felt a lot like a memory, but that could not have been the case. If that was one of his memories, then why would Sora not remember that until now? Whatever the case, Sora had to put it aside, because right now, Spidey was back to fighting Kraven and Mysterio, with the Guard Armor swinging its massive fists at him as he spun through the air in an attempt to avoid the Heartless.

Despite this, Sora still paused as he thought about what he just saw and heard, namely the advice that Aqua had given before he returned to the present situation. Could it really be that simple when it came to controlling his magic? Simply thinking about what he viewed to be most important to him and then channeling it into inner strength? It seemed both too easy and clichéd, and yet, if there was a chance that it could work, Sora had to take it. Turning his gaze about the area again, Sora analyzed the area, using the visor in his helmet to help, and after studying the Guard Armor with his scanners, Sora saw that this thing was putting out a much stronger signal than any of the Heartless he had dealt with before now, so he doubted he would be able to affect it with that freezing spell like he had with Cap. That meant, he would just have to use it on Mysterio and Kraven, hoping for the best. Once he had zeroed his sights onto the two supervillains, his helmet's visor aiding him by giving him a set of targeting reticules over the bad guys, he aimed his Keyblade at them, focused on thoughts of his friends, and shouted a single word that summed up what he wanted to happen next. "STOP!"

Spider-Man did not know what happened. One minute he was on his back, unable to do anything other than watch as Kraven charged, ready to sink his claws into him with Mysterio using his cackling little gremlin-robots to distract him, and the next thing he knew, both villains had frozen in place after what sounded like a clock chime had gone off. He then slowly moved around, looking the two over, and neither one of them even moved an inch, save for how Kraven's eyes seemed to move from side to side. "Um…What just happened," Spidey finally asked after a minute.

"I think I've finally gotten the hang of this thing when it comes to magic," Sora revealed with a smile. The sound of shifting sand drew his attention to what was behind him, and he immediately jumped away just as Sandman had fully formed in front of him. "How about you chill out. Or better yet…Freeze," Sora shouted, aiming his Keyblade at Sandman. Unlike before though, nothing happened, much to Sora's annoyance. "Okay, maybe I'm just starting to get the hang of it, but I don't need magic to deal with a walking sandbox."

"Whoa, wait a minute there, Key-Boy," Spider-Man interjected, jumping between the two when he did.

"Key-Boy? Seriously," Sora asked. "Now you're just trying to make fun of me."

"Well then, either pick a name for yourself, or take what others are giving you."

"Oh, so if you call me Key-Boy, does that mean I can call you Spider-Boy?"

"…Touché. Just let me talk to him," Spidey nodded before returning to the matter at hand.

"Why," Sora asked. He did not get what Spider-Man was getting at. Had he forgotten how often Sandman had nearly killed him in the past, or any of the other crimes that said supervillain had committed? It was not exactly kept a secret from the public.

"Well, there's the fact that he's keeping your other big friend over there from trying to hurt us, in case you hadn't noticed," Spidey pointed out, waving towards the Guard Armor when he did.

When Sora looked to the Heartless in question, he saw that Spidey was right. There was sand rising up and holding the Guard Armor in one spot, much to his surprise, and the only explanation behind that could have been Sandman. Seeing this, Sora eventually just nodded to Spider-Man and let the web-swinger do his thing. "What're you doing, Marko," Spidey asked. "The last time I saw you, you had helped me to save the lives of a lot of people. I thought you were gone after that, but the fact that you're still here is…Well, it's a huge relief, except for the fact that you're still making the same bad choices as before. What did these guys promise you? Money? Jewels? Some other trinkets that would count as part of another big score?"

"No, Spidey. Not this time. They only needed to offer me a cure," Sandman revealed.

"A cure? A cure for what," Sora asked, now very confused.

Spider-Man on the other hand, did not need any hints, because he had already started putting the pieces together, and the full picture just became clear thanks to that last one. "Whatever gave you your powers is starting to have a nasty side-effect on your body. You're already having a hard time pulling yourself together again, and that's why you've been dodging us for most of this fight instead of just letting our hits go through you like normal."

"Yeah, and pretty soon, I'm gonna go from Sandman, to just plain sand," Marko confirmed. "Doc Ock's the one who made me this way, and I figured that he's the only one who could undo it. I don't want to turn into some beach forever, so if there's a way I can avoid turning to dust, I've gotta take it, even if I gotta do something I don't want to."

Now Sora was starting to get where they were going with this, and an idea quickly clicked into his head. "You don't have to work with bad guys to get cured, Marko. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm friends with Tony Stark and Hank Pym. They're both pretty smart, and if they can't figure out a way to change you back to normal, then they've got other smart friends who could help. Just let us give it a try, and maybe we can…"

"What? Lock me up like all the other villains who are out and running lose since that whole Breakout thing? No way. I wasn't even doing good stuff even before I went sandy. I don't want to go back to jail again. Besides, I may want stay together, but I don't want to be normal again. Flint Marko was just a nobody, and he never meant anything to anyone."

"Really, because I think he means a great deal more than you think," Spidey argued with total conviction. "You may have had powers to help you do it, but you still helped save both the lives of a lot of sailors and my life when that tanker blew. That wasn't Sandman who did that; that was all Flint Marko."

Hearing that made Marko pause and think for a moment, until he finally smiled a bit and said, "Yeah…I guess you have a point there."

"And you can do that again by helping us take down that Heartless," Sora pointed out, indicating the Guard Armor.

Marko looked between the heroes and the Heartless for a minute, thinking about his next decision, until he finally looked to the two with a determined expression and said, "What can I do to help?"

"Hold the thing in place long enough for me to get in close and hit it with the Keyblade. I just need to land a clean shot and it'll be destroyed," Sora explained. "Spidey, think you can spare a few webs to help with that?"

"I should have enough web-fluid left for the job," Spider-Man nodded with a roll of his shoulders. He then fell into a battle stance of his own and said, "Let's do this."

With that, the three immediately rushed in, with Sandman using every grain of sand that he had at his disposal to hold the Guard Armor in place. Spider-Man was able to provide a great deal of support in restraining the Heartless by adding a few webs into the mix, so the Guard Armor was completely immobile by the time Sora had gotten in range, using a pedestal that Sandman had formed to help boost him into the air so he could land an aerial strike on the massive monster. The hit was true and clean, but unfortunately, it did not seem to do anything, as the Guard Armor proved when it managed to get a leg free and kick Sora away, right into Sandman, who instantly dispersed into sand the minute that Sora went through him. After rolling aside in order to avoid being stomped on, Sora had to take a minute to spit some sand out of his mouth while Spider-Man flipped over to him.

"Well, that worked like a dream," Spidey sarcastically commented.

"I don't get it," Sora muttered, ignoring the web-head's sarcasm. "I know this thing has more power than the other Heartless, but that shouldn't mean its invincible against the Keyblade."

"Well apparently it does," Spider-Man retorted, waving his hand at the Guard Armor as if to prove his point.

"But it shouldn't. Fury and Thor both made it very clear that creatures like the Heartless are most vulnerable to the Keyblade, so why is this one still going like I was just throwing a simple rock at it," Sora demanded, barely noticing that Sandman had finally managed to pull himself together, proving he was telling the truth when he said that he was having a hard time keeping and regaining his solid state.

"Hey fellas? What happened to the thing's arm," Sandman suddenly asked, interrupting the arguing heroes.

Spider-Man and Sora both turned to see that the Guard Armor was indeed missing an arm now, whereas it still had both before Sora's strike. After thinking for a minute, Sora just shrugged and said, "Maybe it detached it in order to launch some kind of sneak attack on us?"

"Kid, the thing wasn't attached to begin with! None of its limbs are," Sandman pointed out.

"Hold on…Maybe that's why Sora couldn't take him out so easily before," Spider-Man suggested, a theory quickly forming in his head. "Maybe each part of the thing has its own energy levels that are depleted when they get hit by the Keyblade, which would mean that it would get weaker every time we take one part out."

Sora was quickly scanning the Guard Armor with his visor, and he immediately revealed, "The energy levels on the Guard Armor have gone down quite a bit compared to what they were before."

"So we just have to take it apart piece by piece, and then its toast," Sandman asked.

"Yep, pretty much," Spider-Man confirmed. "Sora, you stay at the ready to hit it once you have an opening. Marko, you and me are gonna pick a limb and pin it down anyway we can."

"Right," the two nodded, and they were soon setting to work once again.

This time around, Sandman focused mainly on keeping the remaining arm and torso of the Guard Armor in one place, while Spider-Man webbed up its large feet every chance he had, and they both made sure that each part of the massive Heartless stayed where they were long enough for Sora to rush in and slash it with his Keyblade. Despite the fact that each part of the Heartless was weaker than they were as a whole, Sora still had to hack at each one a couple of times or so before they dispersed or broke apart, but that mattered very little because in a short time, Sora had managed to destroy both the legs and the arm, and all that was left was the torso. Without its other limbs, the Guard Armor had been freed to unleash a powerful spinning attack on the three, but thankfully, they were able to stay out of its way for the most part, and with Sandman's help, Spidey managed to pin it down before it could try the same trick twice in a row. Taking his chance once again, Sora rushed in, leapt into the air, and hit the torso of the Guard Armor with a powerful, downward slash. A minute after Sora's feet had touched the ground, the Guard Armor began to rattle and shake, until it finally just dropped down onto the ground with a loud thud, and dispersed completely, releasing the same heart-shaped crystal that Sora had seen many times before.

"Well…that happened," Spider-Man panted in relief.

"Yeah. Welcome to my life," Sora panted in agreement as he plopped down on his back.

"Um…" Sandman suddenly said, drawing the two heroes' attention to him. "Were you serious when you said that you would talk to Stark and Pym about helping me, or did you only say that to get me to help you take down that monster?"

Sora just smiled in reply and said, "I'm always serious when I say that I'm gonna try and help somehow. You do still have to turn yourself in, but I'm definitely going to talk to Tony and Hank later today. I'm pretty sure that they're still going to make us finish up the school day or something."

"Yeah, somehow, I get the feeling that they're going to send students home early after what happened here, even after the cops have come to get…" Spider-Man stopped midway when he saw that Kraven and Mysterio were both now long gone, and groaned, "Aw man! I hate it when the bad guys get away like that! I thought they weren't going to be moving after you zapped them with your weird Key-sword."

"Keyblade," Sora corrected. "And to be fair, this is the first time I've actually let that spell run its full course. The last time I used it, I somehow managed to cancel it on my own without meaning too. I'm just glad that it was on Captain America and not an actual bad guy."

"Well…at least we got two of them," Spider-Man said. When Sora looked at him a little weirdly, he quickly asked, "You did get that Night Hunter guy, right?"

"No…He got away too, but I get the feeling that I'm gonna run into him again sometime soon," Sora revealed. His serious mood was quickly killed though when Sandman suddenly rushed up and scooped him up in a huge hug, much to both heroes' surprise. "Uh, what…?"

"Just…No one's ever done anything for me just to help, ya know, so thanks, kid," Marko explained once he had released Sora.

Sora simply smiled before looking to his Keyblade for a minute, and decided that it was time to finally put a certain nicknaming matter to rest. In order to do so, he simply hefted the Keyblade up so that it rested on his shoulder, and smirked as he stated, "That's Keyblade Samurai to you guys."

Marko smiled in approval of the new name, and Sora had to assume Spider-Man was doing the same since he could not see the web-head's face. That and the fact that Spidey had swung away shortly after Sora had said that. At that point, there was really nothing more to do but wait for the authorities to arrive, and Sandman made no moves to try and run whatsoever, determined to show that he was willing to own up for his crimes in order to get his cure. Seeing that, Sora could not help but smile, glad that Spidey had shown him that they did not always need to beat up a bad guy to win. Thinking on that, Sora found himself hoping to meet the web-head again, because he had a feeling that there was still a lot he could learn from him. To be honest, Sora was really looking forward to when that day came, and he had a feeling it would be really soon.

* * *

When the police came by later that day, they were accompanied by SHIELD, and Fury himself promised Sora that he would have Sandman transferred to a special holding cell where the Fantastic Four could safely work to find a way to stabilize him. He also promised Sora that Reed Richards would be getting in contact with Stark and Pym at the earliest possible moment, but Sora simply waved it off and said that he was already going to tell the two when he got home anyways. It did not stop Fury from making a small joke about how Sora's first day at school had gone, just to get a rise out of the kid, but even so, Sora was still happy for Marko, and seeing Flint's grateful smile definitely helped him feel even better about how things had turned out.

As for school itself, it turned out that Spidey was right to assume that the students would be sent home early, mainly so that Damage Control Inc could restore the place so that it would be safe for everyone, but the fact that a number of students had been quite shaken up had a lot to do with it too. Not that very many of them really showed it that much, making Sora wonder just how often some of these guys had encountered something like this in their lives. When he was walking out, Sora found himself getting the royal treatment as so many of his new classmates were now offering him thanks, while some even offered to be his new best friend, though Sora could tell that the latter of those were just doing it so they could say that they had an Avenger on their speed-dial. Not that he was too bothered by it, because he had already found a few real friends as it was, which he was happy about.

He had actually just spotted Miles and Anya on his way out, and was about to go over and talk to them, when he was stopped by none other than Peter Parker, who was now looking a little sheepish and apologetic. "Hey listen, sorry about some of the stuff I said before. You know, about you and the Avengers," Peter started off.

"Hey, don't worry about it. You did have a few good points," Sora tried to wave off.

"Well it still wasn't cool, and if I knew you were the Key-Guardian…"

"Keyblade Samurai," Sora interrupted, earning a confused look from Peter. "Hey, if everyone's going to insist on calling me something, I might as well have a say in the final decision. Anyways, like I said, you were right before. I guess some of the team do think we need to focus more on the bigger picture, and honestly, I was kinda focusing on at least part of that myself. Guess I forgot that other people are going to need my help too sometimes, be it because of the Heartless or even a simple purse-snatcher."

"Oh, well…Glad I could give you that reminder," Peter replied, slightly unsure but glad to see his words did have a bit of an impact. "And thanks for helping to save the school. I don't know if you know this, but you actually helped keep one of my best friends safe. Gwen Stacy. You know, the girl with blonde hair?"

"Yeah, I think I know who you're talking about, but to be honest, I think she actually helped save me more than I did her. Same goes for Miles and Anya too, really," Sora admitted. It was at that point, he thought of something he had heard earlier, and he just had to ask Peter about it. "By the way, I heard that you and Gwen Stacy were close to being a thing last year, but something had happened that made you guys decide not to. Care to explain that?"

"I'd rather not. It's…a little complicated," Peter revealed, his expression making it crystal clear how little he did wanted to discuss this particular topic. "Besides, Avenger or not, I doubt there's all that much you could do to help."

"I wasn't really offering, but I would like to if I could," Sora pointed out. "Besides, you could at least let me help by letting me be your friend. Sometimes, that's all someone really needs to get through the tough times, you know?"

Peter was silent at that point, and seemed to think about it for a few minutes, until he finally gave Sora a small smile and said, "Yeah, I'd like that. Thanks Sora."

"No problem, Peter," Sora nodded.

The two then fell silent after that, not really sure what to say now, until Peter thought of something that he could bring up. "Say, since you just started today, I'm guessing you're a little behind on what they're teaching. If you still need a tutor, I'd be happy to help out, and I get the feeling that Miles and Anya would too."

"Yeah, that would be great," Sora instantly agreed.

"Great. How about we start today? I was going to head over to ESU for my internship at Doctor Warren's lab with Gwen, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you tagged along. He's already cool with Miles and Anya stopping by every now and then for tutoring, and Gwen could be a huge help as well, so…"

"That would definitely be a huge help, thanks," Sora nodded. "Besides, I'm in no rush to get back to the mansion just to find that I have to keep Thor and Hulk from nearly starting a fight that could tear the place down again."

"Again," Peter asked.

"Long story," Sora shrugged.

"Well, it's a long bus ride to ESU, so I'd say we've got time," Peter shrugged with a friendly smile. He then looked over to see Miles and Anya approaching them as he added, "And I get the feeling they would want to hear it too."

Sora smiled in response to that, and immediately launched into story-mode, regaling his new friends with stories of things that had happened since the Avengers had formed, both big and small. As he boarded the bus for ESU with the three and Gwen, once she had caught up, Sora could not help but think that maybe school was not going to be so bad after all. He could not wait to tell Janet and the others about his day when he got home.

* * *

Late that night, Enchantress, Zemo, and Executioner were all gathered together in the ARC Reactor room of Stark Tower, where they witnessed Enchantress using her powers to restore Simon Williams, who had been transformed into a being of ionic energy and had nearly perished as a result of his transformation. The only reason he was still alive now was because of Enchantress' powers, and she had a simple task for him to carry out in exchange for this token of good will: destroying the Avengers. While Simon was not entirely okay with destroying the entire team, he did not have any problem with putting an end to Iron Man after Stark had bought out his company, and the Wonder Man was not going to let Stark destroy everything he had built and get away with it. Add in the fact that he did not want to die anytime soon, which he knew would happen in an instant if he said no, and Simon readily agreed to the Asgardian sorceress' offer.

Having settled that business, the four were just about to leave, when a dark portal suddenly appeared near them, from which a certain masked swordsman of darkness stepped forth. Zemo was instantly reaching for his sword, until Enchantress raised a hand and said, "There will be no need for that, Zemo. This young man is with us."

"And just who is this…boy," Zemo questioned, not at all seeing why they would need someone who was obviously a child in their steadily growing alliance of villains.

"Night Hunter, your counter to the Keyblade wielder, who apparently has decided to call himself Keyblade Samurai," the dark swordsman revealed with a smug tone.

Zemo froze a little, because despite the fact that it seemed as though this boy's voice was distorted, he did still recognize the rather deep tone it held as being similar to that of the man who had granted him temporary control of the Heartless. Was this the reason why he had been hiding behind that cloak before? No, that did not seem likely to Zemo. He may not have seen the stranger, but Zemo was absolutely sure that the man was in fact much older than the young lad before him. Enchantress on the other hand remained unfazed, and instead directed Night Hunter's attention onto another matter that she considered far more important. "And what was your impression of the boy?"

"I ran into a couple of hiccups during my encounter with him, but nothing that was too difficult to deal with. In the end, it just proved what I already knew: he's not going to be able to cut it. Even with those other heroes, or really just some random stranger, Sora will never be able to become a true Keyblade master. In the end, I'll get what is rightfully mine."

"You mean to say that you failed to capture the Keyblade from him," Enchantress questioned.

"Yeah, which reminds me that you and a certain someone else had said that I should have been able to take it from him, so why didn't it come to me," Night Hunter questioned, his tone carrying a strong hint of anger.

Enchantress was not at all phased by his outrage, though she was a little worried about what Zemo would say later since Night Hunter had indirectly mentioned her master, but she let that little slip slide so she could provide the explanation he needed. "It may not have chosen Sora originally, but clearly, it's found his heart much more suiting than yours after being in his possession for so long."

"Are you saying my heart's weaker than his," Night Hunter demanded, dark smoke already forming in his hand to show he was about to summon his weapon.

"Perhaps in some sense, and whatever the case, it's now bonded to his heart, so there will be no taking it from him without destroying him completely. But do not despair, my boy. That particular Keyblade is inferior to your current weapon, and the one that we are currently forging for you, so it won't matter if it remains with him or not. You'll still be able to prove you are his better regardless," Enchantress explained.

If she could see his face, Amora would have been able to see that Night Hunter's expression was twisted into one of anger at the first half of her speech, but by the time he had finished, all anger was replaced with a wide, twisted grin. All the same, he was not about to let the blonde Asgardian forget the reason why he was helping her and her master. "Just remember that I'm not doing any of this for free, Enchantress. And I'm not just referring to how you're to leave Sora to me and me alone."

"Of course," Enchantress waved him off, seeming as though what he was referring to was no big deal. "You help us, and in return, we'll grant you your wish, but only so long as you continue to uphold your end of the bargain."

"Don't worry. I intend to, and I won't let anyone get in my way. Including Sora and his new playmates," Night Hunter promised, and that made both Amora and Skurge's smirks grow even wider. After all, Night Hunter was certainly living up to the latter part of his name, and in no time at all, the worlds would all belong to them and their master.

* * *

Meanwhile, far away from where this little gathering of villains was taking place, another meeting among evil doers was happening, only this one involved villains that came from multiple different worlds, and who were all much more aware of the grander scheme than Zemo or Wonder Man were. The main topic of this meeting: the Keyblade Samurai's recent victory. "That little squirt actually took down that Heartless. Who'd have thought it," a large man with grey skin and blue flames for hair growled as he watched the images of Sora, Spidey, and Sandman's battle against the Guard Armor replaying before them.

"Such is the power of the Keyblade. The child's strength is not his own," scoffed a very regal sounding man dressed in an equally royal outfit while carrying a snake staff. "More than that, the boy had aid from another so-called hero of that world, and a supposed villain. Rather insulting to think that this Sandman could have been so easily swayed."

"Might I suggest we turn him and all of his friends into Heartless? Not only would that settle the problem of their interference, but it would also likely allow us to gain powerful new servants as well for our own needs," offered a tall man whose purple eyes seemed to glow with power, while his long, light blue hair ran down his back in a styling that made it look similar to two long horns, while his long ornate robes seemed to glisten a little even in the shadows of the room around him.

"Or we could just end up with more of the typical, pathetic Shadows that we already have in abundance. Like we really need more of those, especially when it concerns the plans I have in store for my own world," another man in a blue outfit, who strangely enough, had blue skin and a stitched up scar on one side of his face.

"And the brat's friends are supposedly this world's 'mightiest heroes,' while the king's lackeys are likely to appear before him any day now," a hook handed man in a pirate outfit snarled, scowling as he studied both Sora, and the images of the Avengers that had appeared alongside the first one. "Swoggle me eyes, they're all bilge rats by the look of them!"

"Well with all due respect to you, as a fellow pirate captain, yer not much of a prize yerself, me lad," another pirate stated. This one had a thick, wiry beard, shoulder-length hair, and a long black coat that was paired off with the extravagant tattered hat on his head.

"Shut up," the hook-handed pirate snapped, taking great offense despite his fellow's pirate's assurances that none was intended. "I won't stand for insults from some cursed cur like you."

"Enough," a new voice calmly declared, putting an end to any fighting that was about to break out. At once, everyone turned their attention to the head of the table, and leveled their gazes on the man who lead this group of villainy. This man was clad in a black bodysuit with gold armor covering his torso and arms, while black boots were adorned on his feet, a helmet with long antlers was worn atop his head, and his hand held a rather impressive trident-like staff. This man was none other than Loki, adopted brother of Thor, enemy of Asgard, son of Laufey, and God of Mischief. "The Keyblade has chosen this boy, however unassuming he may be, and our forces are already moving into play in order to handle him. Will he conquer the darkness, or will the darkness swallow him, my brother, and these Avengers whole? Either way, none of them are ready for what's to come next."

* * *

 ** _AN: And there you have it. Sora and Spidey have met and teamed up, the Master of Evil have a new member, this story's court of villains has made their debut, there was the battle against the Guard Armor, and Sora somehow managed to survive his first day of high school!_**

 ** _Sora: Ha, ha, very funny._**

 ** _AN: Well I certainly thought so. Just to be clear, this Spidey and his supporting cast are mainly those of the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series (which should have gotten a third season), but it is in the aftermath of the show's second season. Meaning that Peter's a senior at Midtown, he's dated and broken up with Liz, he and Gwen both have feelings for each other but can't be together because of Green Goblin Junior, and...well, if you've seen the series, you know what I'm talking about. And if you know this, then I assume that I can guess you all know why I had Sandman's character go the route he did, so I'm not going to say much more on that._**

 ** _BTW, like I said at the start, I'm going to simplify Tony's explanation as to why we're not breaking the fourth wall when Sora travels to other worlds in this story. At the most basic level, it's just like how they say that there's more than one way to tell a good story. I mean, this entire website is proof of that, for crying out loud! We all tell our own versions of various different stories with every chapter or story that we post on here, so even if Disney does exist in this story's version of the Marvel world, we won't be breaking the fourth wall simply because of that reason. Sora and the others have no way of knowing that the movies are a guideline to events of other worlds, so they're not going to approach anything like they know what will happen, and even if they did, it won't make a difference, because things could be completely different in comparison, or they could be at a point that the movies don't go into detail about, or that's in between two movies in a series, like Aladdin, Toy Story, etc._**

 ** _Now that we've cleared up that mess (and will hopefully never hear of it again), let's talk about Night Hunter. I know, not the most creative name, but it was really the best that I could think of, or at least the best thing that didn't sound something that was already used by someone else. If you're having a hard time figuring out his appearance, here's a simpler description: Riku's Dark Form with Vanitas' helmet. I'm sure a lot of you have already figured out who it is that's behind the guy's mask, even without that little detail that I just gave, and are wondering why I added in the helmet. Well the answer might actually surprise you a little...But I'm not going to reveal it just yet. I don't like giving out spoilers you know._**

 ** _Hulk: And you also like messing with all of a story's cast members that try to give them._**

 ** _AN: Well I wouldn't say_ all _of them. I've never done a spoiler gag on you, have I Hulk._**

 ** _Hulk: Because you know I'll smash you later if you do._**

 ** _AN: I can neither confirm nor deny that. Oh, before I forget, yeah, I added in Miles Morales (The Ultimate Spider-Man aka Kid Arachnid) and Anya Corazon (Spider-Girl), both of which are closer to Sora's age than Peter is, and there appearances are actually similar to those that they have in the newest Spider-Man cartoon, Marvel's Spider-Man 2017. I know not a lot of people are really big fans of that series, and I have to admit, I myself find it to be a bit lacking in a few departments too, but it does make up for that in a few different ways, partly by adding in characters who we haven't seen in any Spider-Man animated series yet, like Max Modell or Anya, and partly because it also does something that other series don't really do that much: emphasize the scientist side of Spidey's character. Before anyone asks, yes, Miles will assume his heroic alter ego later on in the story, and Anya may end up becoming Spider-Girl at some point in the series as well, but for now, the only other female Spider-Hero I intend to add would be our new favorite Spider-Woman: Spider-Gwen. Yeah, Gwen's going to get spider powers later on, and you'll see how when we reach that chapter. Plus, since Peter is in a higher grade level than Sora, I needed to add in a character or two that was in the same year as him, otherwise, it would just be Sora and maybe one or two other characters attending Midtown by the next story, since Spidey and all of his friends are seniors here._**

 ** _Hope you all also enjoyed another little bit of Ven's influence in Sora's journey for this story via that little flashback scene between Ven and Aqua, and before anyone asks, yes, we will be seeing more of such visions happening, along with one or two visions of things that happened to both Ven and his two best friends, at least in regards to their adventures here on the Avengers' world. I mainly just added that in so that Sora could have a way to start getting a better handle on his magic, or at least something close to a better handle. Obviously he's still got a ways to go, otherwise, he'd be using things like glide, wall-jumping, and teleporting by now._**

 ** _Also, in case it wasn't clear, yes, this chapter happened at the exact same time that the other Avengers were dealing with Wonder Man, hence another reason why we saw that little scene between Night Hunter and the Masters of Evil at the end there. And speaking of bad guys, now you know how the big council of villains has changed in this story, compared to the canon version. Obviously Ursula and Oogie Boogie are not part of this, and there are quite a few members that are still present (Namely Hades, Jafar, and Captain Hook), but we've also seen two other Disney villains join in along with a third member as well. In case you did not figure it out, the new guys are Dr Draken from Kim Possible, and Hector Barbosa from Pirates of the Caribbean, so you can probably guess what that means for two worlds we'll be seeing in this story._**

 ** _Captain America: What about that third villain. The man with strange hair and eyes? He did not seem to be a Disney villain._**

 ** _AN: That's because he's not. He's a Final Fantasy villain, and we'll be seeing him again in a chapter that will come after the events of Gamma World, so expect to see him again some time soon._**

 ** _Wasp: Please just tell us who he is. None of us can take the suspense._**

 ** _AN: Okay, fine. He's Seymour Guado from Final Fantasy X. Happy? Good. Let's move on, and before anyone asks, yes, that does mean the world he's from will appear here. I did say we were going to have more than just Disney and KH worlds in this story, after all. And to round things out, it's not Maleficent who's leading the big bads from other worlds, but our favorite, evil Asgardian who we just love to hate, Loki! Who is actually sporting his appearance from the Avengers Assemble animated series, the first one to be more specific. But he does have the staff he was using in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, at least at the moment, so hope that will make up for anyone who's not okay with that. Honestly though, I gave Loki that appearance because I like that one more than the one he had in Avengers: EMH. It just seems better in my opinion. As for why I have Loki leading the villains as opposed to Maleficent, well, it just made more sense. Besides, the two have a lot of similarities, so it's not like it's going to be that incredibly different having Loki calling the shots. Sorry for anyone who was hoping to see Maleficent getting her dragon-hide kicked here._**

 ** _Well, I think I've covered everything I wanted to, so I'll just go ahead and get to the really good part of these ending notes, aka the part that everyone normally reads them for: details/ideas on what's gonna go down next chapter. We're headed back to the main story there, and I'm sure everyone's going to be especially excited about it after seeing the awesomeness that is the movie about one of the characters who will join the team next chapter! Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _It's back to work for the Avengers again, and their main objective right now is identifying the mystery man who saved Captain America and Sora from Zemo when the masked villain had infiltrated the mansion. They do not have to ponder that for long though, as the man in question appears before them, revealing himself to be the prince and rightful ruler of Wakanda, T'Challa, and he has come with a desperate plea for help. When the team finds themselves entering a battle against both the forces of Wakanda and HYDRA, one has to wonder just what it will take for them to come out of this alive, let alone help restore the Black Panther to the throne. Maybe perhaps, a mystery individual who has been running around the vibranium mine in an attempt to sabotage HYDRA since T'Challa's departure? Find out what sort of jungle rumble the team will get into, in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Yep, the king of Wakanda is coming aboard next time, and it looks like he won't be alone. Exciting, right? For now though..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	6. Panther's Quest

_**AN: Okay, to be honest, I wanted to post this chapter almost right after I saw Black Panther, because that movie was just so epic! But at the time, I was close to finishing up Kingdom Hearts Dual Keys, so I had to suppress that urge for a little while. Oh well, at least I can still post this chapter after an epic MCU movie has come out, and let me tell you Avengers Infinity War most definitely qualifies for the list of epic movies, to put it mildly. That thing lived up to all the hype it had going for it, and then obliterated that scale to go even more epic than anything ever before! And that's without the post-credits scene that you absolutely have to see!**_

 _ **Sora: Ahem. Maybe you could get to the point before you get too far off track?**_

 _ **AN: Right, sorry. Thank you for helping me avert my total fan-boy freak out over the greatest Avengers movie to date, because like I was saying, we're finally back again for the newest chapter of Hearts of Avengers!**_

 _ **[audience applause]**_

 _ **Yes, thank you, thank you! You're all wonderful and very patient, for which I'm also quite glad. Anyways, let's answer a couple of reviews before we get right into things.**_

 _ **First off, let's start with a review that was posted for Chapter 4, by guest reviewer "stime4", and his question about Cap being able to talk while under the effects of Stop. I'd just like to point out that the spell used in Dream Drop Distance was a much, much, MUCH more advanced version of the spell, so of course it was going to have a total freeze effect like that. The one that Sora used was just the initial, most basic version of Stop. You know, the one you start out with when you first learn the spell, so it's not going to be quite as effective, and have the side-effect of not being a total time-freeze like Mickey's Stopza.**_

 _ **Next up, let's address the matter of how many of you are curious if Sora will visit the world of Star Wars in this story. I'll admit that initially, I had no real plans to include the world of a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but after thinking it over, I do think I might go for something there. I've just got to decide between the worlds of Star Wars Rebels vs the newest trilogy, as in the movies that include The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and whatever number three of that trilogy is going to be called.**_

 _ **Iron Man: Why's that such a big deal? And why's the Clone Wars not included in that list?**_

 _ **AN: Well in answer to the latter question, it's because I'm exploring the world in the era of the Clone Wars in my Keyblades Unleashed series, aka the series that include Keyblade of Future Past, Kingdom Hearts Dual Keys, and the soon to be coming story of Kingdom Hearts Keyblade Legion, so I wanted to go with another point in the Star Wars era. And before anyone asks why I'm not going for the original trilogy, it's because I don't want to mess with the classics like that. At least, not too much, hence the reason why Rebels is one of my choices.**_

 _ **As for why it's such a big deal, well, I've recently gotten a bit of a thing where I don't really like the idea of starting stories that include series that are not quite finished as of this moment, hence the reason why I have not posted my possible idea of a Spider-Man & Arrow-verse crossover at this time. It just feels like I would be interfering in the story and throwing off the conclusion too greatly to be able to react and make up for it later on. It's...It's a silly idea and maybe a little weird and cray, I'll admit, but normal's overrated. Anyway, I'm leaning more towards Rebels at this time, or maybe even a point that takes place post-Rebels finale, so that we can see an interpretation of how Sabine found Ezra.**_

 _ **Wasp: Maybe if you go with Rebels, you should only follow that story line in the sequel for this story.**_

 _ **AN: Yeah, maybe. Well, it's something to think about, and we've still got a pretty decent amount of time until we've reached the halfway point of this story.**_

 _ **While we're doing a general review response, I'd also like to go ahead and clear up something that a lot of people made a slightly incorrect assumption about. I'm gonna go ahead and say it now, Ven &Aqua are not, I repeat NOT going to be a couple in this story series. Yes, I have them set up as a couple in Keyblades Unleashed, but this is an entirely different series, so that means that a few things are going to be different in comparison. Don't get me wrong, I do like those two being together in a romantic sense, but this time around, they're going to have more of a sibling bond than a romantic one. And furthermore, even though we've seen it like a zillion times already, Aqua's actually going to be paired up with Terra in this series. Sorry to all Ven&Aqua shippers and fans out there. Hope that did not make you decide to stop following this story, because I can promise that there are plenty of other reasons to keep following it.**_

 _ **Ven &Terra: [glaring at each other heatedly like rivals in love]**_

 _ **AN: Stop that.**_

 _ **Ven &Terra: What?**_

 _ **AN: Moving on, let's go with a quick response for our guest reviewer "SpideyRocks75", yeah, Spider-Man and friends will be tagging along with Sora to one of the other worlds in this story, and not only that, but it will also have some unexpected consequences in the aftermath.**_

 _ **Spidey: Uh, I feel like I should be worried about that.**_

 _ **AN: Well don't be. It's not even that bad, or at least, I don't think it is, and I sincerely hope that no one else will. Oh, and before I forget, there's a matter that "Dragon Rider 66" brought up that I meant to mention at the end of the last chapter: the design of Sora's new helmet. I'm so sorry I didn't explain that sooner, but I am going to tell you all right now that said helmet is actually a very accurate match to the one he wore when he visited the world of Tron Legacy in Dream Drop Distance. Sorry again for not making that clear before.**_

 _ **Any other questions that were posed are ones that I cannot answer at this time without giving away major spoilers, be it for this chapter or future chapters, although I can already see you guys begging me to tell you who Ven is going to end up being paired with after reading what I said about him and Aqua not being together romantically in this story, so if you really want to know that badly, please by all means, go ahead and ask. I'll give you all a hint in the next chapter.**_

 _ **Although before I let you all get into the story, I would like to make a quick mention to "Monkey D. Conan". I plan to have Sora meet Doctor Strange at some point after Gamma World, at which point he will have learned all the three basic elemental spells that he has in each game (Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder), and as for learning Spidey's secret identity...well, I'll leave that as a surprise for now. As for that whole pairing between Loki & Maleficent [shivers at the thought of such villain love] yeah, I'm guessing you can see my thoughts on that, and yet, as disturbing as it is, I can still see it being a thing. I may or may not run with it later, but you'll just have to wait and see for the moment. Also, the whole Princess Bride moment you had there, I definitely got it, and appreciate it. I really liked that movie, myself.**_

 _ **Moving back to general review responses for a quick moment though...for all of you who have guessed that Night Hunter is actually Riku...well, there is a chance that you might be right, but I think you'll find something happening later on that will make you wonder about that. Trust me, it'll be something you won't see coming at all.**_

 _ **Riku: I'm suddenly a little nervous about that.**_

 _ **AN: Well, we don't have time for that now. Right now, we need to start the chapter and fly on over to Wakanda! Avengers, to the chapter, and Wakanda forever!...**_

 _ **I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter VI**

Apparently, despite all the crazy stuff that had happened to him on his first day of high school, Sora ended up having a much better day in comparison to the rest of his teammates. When he finally got home that night, after spending so much time with Peter, Miles, Anya, and Gwen, Sora found a very sad mood had found its way into the mansion. It did not really start worrying him until after he found Wasp looking like she had been close to tears at some point, and after he did, he just had to ask what the hell had happened to his teammates while he was imprisoned in a school building. Whatever joking tone Sora had used when he asked the question was quickly dropped after Hank had told him the whole story.

Apparently Tony's meeting and dealings with Simon Williams had gone very badly, and the man had stormed out in anger, thinking that Tony was going to destroy everything that he had been working on for his whole life. As it turned out, Simon's solution to the problem actually ended up tying into the AIM deal that Thor and Wasp had tried to bust, because it was later that same day that Simon had actually gone to AIM in the hopes that they could give him the ability to get his revenge on Tony. As a result of both the experiment he was put into, and by some extension, Thor and Wasp's surprise arrival at the AIM base, Simon had been transformed into a being of ionic energy. It was not until after Simon had gone on to attack Iron Man at Stark Industries that he realized that the energy he was now made of was highly unstable, and as a result, Simon was slowly coming apart at the seams. The Avengers had initially arrived on the scene to help stop Simon from hurting Tony, but in the end, they had to scramble in an attempt to get Simon into the ARC Reactor of Stark Tower in the hopes that its energy would stabilize Simon. Needless to say, their efforts failed, and they had all watched as Simon disintegrated before their very eyes.

No one had been more upset about it than Tony, because he never got the chance to really explain to Simon that he did not want to destroy Simon's work. Tony's efforts to buy out Williams Innovations were all done in the hopes of saving it. He knew that Simon had some brilliant ideas and technology in development, but none of it would have made it out into the world because the company had been going under. He had been hoping that he could work with Simon so that they could see all of his inventions and work through to completion, and maybe even beyond that, but because of what had happened, Simon was now lost to them thinking that Tony had been the bad guy in the whole affair. It had left Tony really broken up afterwards, and he had spent the rest of his day tinkering in the armory, both so he could repair his damaged suits and so that he could continue his efforts to learn about the mystery intruder that had saved Sora and Captain America from Zemo and the Heartless.

Sora's first question had naturally been why they had not called him when all of this was happening, and the team all insisted that they did not want to pull him out of his first day of school so suddenly. They had honestly believed that they could handle things since the Heartless were not involved in the matter, and considering that Midtown High had been the site of the most recent Heartless attack, Sora could honestly not blame them for that reasoning. Besides, it did mean that he was able to save the school and his new friends, while also getting the chance to meet Spider-Man. Sure, there was still the matter of this Night Hunter to worry about, but Sora was honestly more excited over the fact that he had gotten to meet one of the most well-known superheroes in New York than anything else. When he told the others about that, they had all asked why he had not asked Spidey to join the team, and he immediately told them about how the web-head had already swung off before he got the chance to ask.

They all shrugged that off for the moment. After all, if Sora had encountered Spider-Man once, there was always the chance he could run into said web-head again, so he could always ask when that time finally came. For now though, they were more interested in finally solving the mystery of who their mystery intruder was. That was the main reason why most of the Avengers had all gathered in the Assembly Hall a few days later, and while reviewing the footage from the mansion's security cameras was boring, it was also necessary since that was the only part of the security system that seemed to have noticed anything to indicate that there was an intruder in the building besides Zemo and the Heartless. Sora probably would have had an easier time paying attention though if he was not struggling to stay awake. He had no idea how he had let Hank talk him into having a late night study session that lasted until nearly midnight on a Friday night.

Sora quickly woke up though when they finally came to the part of the video recap of the fight he and Captain America had against Zemo, and he was now paying just as much attention to it as the super soldier was. It took a couple more seconds than they would have liked, but eventually, they did see the part where Cap's shield came flying through the Heartless and into the path of Zemo's blade, before a set of daggers sailed through another wave of Heartless. A minute later, the camera panned around to show the person who had thrown both items, and Cap and Sora both immediately shouted, "That's him!"

JARVIS immediately froze the image right when the man had leapt up into the air, and they were all greeted with a sight that could only be described in a small number of ways. "Wait, what am I looking for again? A giant cat," Janet questioned as she squinted at the image on the holo-screen.

"It was a man," Captain America insisted.

"A man in a black, cat-themed suit, but definitely a man," Sora added, barely stifling a yawn as he spoke.

Janet gave him a small glance, clearly noticing when he had yawned, and then threw a look at Hank as she said, "No more study sessions that last until three in the morning."

"It did not last until three in the morning," Hank insisted for what was probably the fourth time since they all got here. After another minute or so, which included Janet giving him a look that Hank knew to mean he was in trouble if he said the wrong thing, he then added, "It lasted until two in the morning, and besides, Sora needed the help with his science homework."

While this conversation was entertaining, they were getting off track, and Cap took the liberty of bringing their attention back to why they were here. "Can the projectionist make this brighter," the super soldier questioned.

The question had confused everyone else in the room a little, until they remembered that Steve was still not quite caught up on how much modern technology had changed and advanced since the forties. Tony made a quick mental note to give his father's old friend a crash course on modern video technology at the least later before he replied, "Uh, sure. JARVIS, run a full spectrum analysis, will you? And…make it brighter."

A minute later, they watched as JARVIS zoomed in on the image of the cat-suited man, until he was the only thing in view, and the image was enhanced to the point where they could make out the full details of the intruder. A minute later, the image was substituted for a black silhouette while various waves were shown to be flowing into him. "Look at that. Whatever he's wearing, it's absorbent to all energy sepctra," Ant-Man noted with great intrigue. "And what he did to JARVIS…The system still doesn't register there having been another person there aside from Cap, Sora, Zemo, Jan, and the Heartless."

"Okay, fine, I'll admit it. Whoever this intruder is, he's got some okay technology," Tony finally huffed, begrudgingly. Clearly, he was not too fond of how this guy had eluded his security so easily, and given the week he had been having, no one could blame him for being a little irritable.

"All I know is that this man in black saved my life and Sora's too," Captain America interrupted, not wanting Tony to stew in his frustrations for too long. "He's an ally, not an enemy."

 _"Intruder alert,"_ JARVIS suddenly announced as the mansion's alarms began blaring. The five Avengers who were currently present all quickly ran outside to see who was trying to get in, and the minute they had gotten out the front door, they were just in time to see the stranger in black leap down from atop the main gate and then flex his fingers as his gloves sharpened into claws.

"So he's not an Avenger," Steve asked, just to make sure he was not misinterpreting the situation.

"Definitely not," Iron Man replied as his face mask snapped closed.

"If he is, this is the first I've heard of it," Sora quipped, right when the stranger rushed towards them, clearly intent on attacking them.

Iron Man was the first of the team to act by blasting into the air, thinking he could handle the guy on his own, but that quickly changed when the man slashed across his ARC reactor with his claws. Not only did the blow actually damage Tony's suit a little, but the unexpected effectiveness also served to push Tony back and into ground below. Tony then listened as JARVIS gave him a damage report, his suit sparking with electricity as the AI did so, but he made sure to keep an eye on the mystery man as his systems worked to repair themselves. It was good thing he did too, because he had a feeling that the glowing energy surrounding the dagger the stranger just pulled from his belt was probably a bad sign.

"You think you're fast? Dodge these," Wasp suddenly shouted as she flew in to blast the stranger with her stingers. While her cry did draw the stranger's attention, he did not do anything to try and repel her attack. Instead, he simply remained standing and let her shots hit him, allowing Janet to see that the blasts had no effect at all. "What happened?"

"Well, he didn't dodge them," Ant-Man informed his partner as he flew up to her side on an ant. "I did mention that his suit seemed to be absorbent to-WATCH OUT!"

Hank's warning came just seconds before he and Wasp had avoided being hit by a purple energy blast that the stranger had fired from his daggers. When he did not cease firing, Cap took the chance to charge and shove him down, but the man simply back flipped onto his feet again. When Captain America tried to hit their opponent by throwing his shield at him, the stranger just leaned back in order to avoid the disk, and then let it sail past him and back to the captain. Steve could not help but flinch a little, since the shield had nearly hit him when it returned to him, and the stranger looked ready to attempt another strike when he noticed several ants starting to encase his body.

"Now, are you ready to talk about this," Hank demanded. The man's only reply was to tap an unseen control on his wrist, causing his suit to start releasing a unique sound wave from his suit that repelled the ants off him and blasted Ant-Man away. Hank had quickly returned to normal size before he landed on the ground again, and deactivated his helmet while gazing at this stranger in shock. "That sound…That's Vibranium," Hank exclaimed in shock.

Janet did not seem to care as much about that detail as her boyfriend, because she quickly flew past him with stingers charged, saying, "You know what? I've had just about enough of super-tech-cat-ninja guy."

"I agree," Hank nodded as he tapped his belt so that he could become Giant-Man, thankful that while her stingers were not having an effect on the mystery man, they were helping to keep him busy while he went big. Apparently, the stranger was not distracted enough, because he quickly spun away from Hank's hand just as he was about to grab him, and then struck several nerves on Giant-Man's body as he descended back to the ground. When he landed, Giant-Man had fallen to his knees soon after, leaving only one Avenger to take a shot at attempting to subdue him.

He did not have to wait long, because Sora had immediately came charging in with Keyblade in hand, and the two were soon engaging in close-combat, Sora's Kingdom Key against the stranger's daggers. The fight seemed to be somewhat evenly matched this time though, but given how easily this guy had taken down his teammates, he was very sure that this guy was holding back against him for some reason. Knowing this actually got on Sora's nerves a little bit, and he proved it when he increased the ferocity of his attacks, only to find his Keyblade blocked or parried by the stranger's daggers most of the time, while the stranger himself seemed to dodge the rest of his strikes. Thankfully, the mystery man did not land any hits against Sora, but the Keybearer had a feeling that this guy was not really trying to hit back. That was quickly disproven when the man finally did launch an attack on Sora that hit him in his left side, making Sora stagger a little as the man spun around to land another pair of blows from behind him. When the stranger jumped at Sora again, he was fully prepared to bring his daggers down on the boy, but Sora managed to regain his balance just enough to block the strike with his Keyblade, and the two's weapons were soon locked together with one another.

While he was doing his best to push this guy back or break their lock, Sora could have sworn he heard a soft chuckle before the stranger finally spoke up, and said, "You do seem to have spirit, and while they are admirable for one so young, your skills leave something to be desired. Clearly you have not possessed that Keyblade for very long, young wielder. Then again, I suppose I am being a little biased in comparing you to the last Keybearer I had met."

That had surprised Sora a little. Not only was this guy taking nearly the whole team of Avengers apart on his own, but he had also met another Keyblade wielder before him? Was it that Ventus guy that Sora had heard about from Tony? Or maybe it was the infamous Master Aqua that he kept hearing about. Before he could ask, the stranger finally seemed to push him down, and Sora was forced to struggle a little harder just so he could have enough space to roll back from the guy. Sora was instantly on his feet again though, and ready to continue, when he saw Iron Man come up behind their intruder and aim a wrist-rocket at the back of his head.

"Don't even think about it," Tony warned, though part of him was hoping that this guy would try something so that he could see how well his suit held up against a miniature rocket being fired at point-blank.

Tony never got the chance though, as the stranger just stood up straight, holstered his daggers, and then clasped his hands behind his back, while shouting, "Enough!"

That surprised everyone, almost as much as the fact that this guy had said that like he had been the one commanding the situation the whole time. Then again, considering how easily he was beating them all, it could be argued that he had been, but still, the way he said it still rubbed the team the wrong way. "What's your game, Mister," Captain America demanded with a glare. "You save mine and Sora's lives, then attack us, and now you believe you expect us to believe you're just going to surrender?"

"I am not surrendering, Captain. I have simply seen enough. I wanted to assess your abilities firsthand. Though I will admit, I was especially curious about those of the young Keybearer that is among your number. Needless to say, he needs a great deal of improvement," the man calmly explained, almost sounding like he was a sensei at the end when he addressed Sora's abilities. He then pulled back his mask, revealing the face of a young, African man with short black hair when he did, but the thing that really caught Sora's attention was the sad expression he wore on his otherwise serious face. "I am T'Challa."

"The prince of Wakanda," Hank gasped in astonishment, having returned to normal size during T'Challa's explanation for why he had appeared here just now.

When Sora's expression turned confused, Tony took it upon himself to explain what he assumed the kid was wondering about. "Wakanda's an African nation that's kept itself hidden away and isolated from the rest of the world, mainly because their greatest resource has proven to be the reason behind many of the attacks that they had faced over the years: Vibranium." Sora's confused look lightened a little, but given how it was still there, Tony knew that there was still question on his mind. "Vibranium is a really strong, practically indestructible metal, and it's what Cap's shield is made out of."

"Really? Wow," Sora commented as he glanced between the prince and Cap's shield for a minute, truly impressed by that knowledge. Still, that did leave one question unanswered, and it was the same one that all of the Avengers were wondering. "So what's the prince of an entire nation doing here?"

Everyone fixed their gaze on T'Challa at that moment, and the prince hesitated for a minute before he finally revealed the reason for his presence. "I need your help."

* * *

A few minutes later, the five Avengers had brought T'Challa down to the Assembly Hall so that they could hear the details of his request for help. To be honest, while he was more curious about who the Keyblade wielder T'Challa had met was, Sora was actually feeling a little nervous around the guy. This was a man who had single-handedly taken down nearly the whole team, and from what they could tell, he had no powers whatsoever. Sure, his suit was made of an indestructible material, as were his daggers, but unlike Tony, who's armor provided him with almost all of his powers, this guy clearly had a great deal of training to make him dangerous. Glancing to some of his friends, Sora saw that the rest of his teammates looked slightly uneasy about T'Challa as well, but they did seem to be handling it pretty well. Hank was especially calm, but that was probably because they were trying to talk things out now as opposed to fighting each other like they had earlier. Then again, he did indicate earlier that he knew the prince, so maybe that had something to do with it as well. Either way, uneasy or not, the Avengers were not going to turn away from someone asking them for help, even if he had gone about it in a weird way, but they still did not quite get why he had come to them in the first place.

"What do you need our help for? You kind of mopped the floor with all five of us," Wasp pointed out, getting right to the heart of the matter.

"Yeah, well, for the record, I was holding back," Tony scoffed a little smugly.

"Same here. I had him right where I wanted him before Tony jumped in," Sora boasted.

"Sure you did, kiddo," Janet teased, seeing right through Sora's false bravado.

"I did," Sora tried to insist. "Tried" being the keyword.

"No, you did not," T'Challa informed him, a small smile on his face that could be considered either smug or teasing.

"Either way, Jan's right," Tony interrupted before they got too far off track with teasing Sora. He still had to hide a small smirk when the kid crossed his arms in a huff, even as he continued, "We're kind of busy dealing with an army of escaped supervillains."

"My country has been overthrown by just such a villain," T'Challa revealed, securing the team's attention even more firmly than before. "A brutal fiend called M'Baku the Man-Ape. I need your help to get passed the Wakandan people so I can restore the throne."

"Wait a minute. Did you just say that you need us to help get past your own people," Sora questioned, not more than a little lost.

Captain America shared Sora's skepticism, and he did not hesitate to inform T'Challa of the flaw in his decision to seek out their help. "If your people are following this 'Man-Ape' of their own free will, that's the end of the story. That's what the people want."

"You do not understand. The people are the problem. They follow the old ways," T'Challa argued, and he then looked away while he began to recount all the events and reasons that had led him to where he was now. "Man-Ape won the throne in combat. They feel they must follow him, no matter if it destroys everything, and the Man-Ape will destroy…everything. I would have been captured and imprisoned by M'Baku had my sister and a friend of ours not helped me in my escape. I just hope that they are both still all right."

From the sounds of what T'Challa was saying, the situation did seem rather dire for his country, but Janet was still left confused about something. "I don't get it," Wasp admitted. "I'm sure he's bad news and all, but how can he destroy everything?"

Hank had the answer, and he was quick to provide an image of it while going into an explanation. "Vibranium. I've studied it firsthand. It's nothing to mess around with."

"And legend has it Wakanda is sitting on a mountain of it," Tony piped in.

"The Vibranium Mound," T'Challa solemnly confirmed. "It is our treasure and our responsibility. For centuries, we have defended it against any who would exploit it."

"That kind of resource should belong to everyone. Vibranium has the potential to change the world," Hank argued.

"I agree, but not necessarily for the better," T'Challa said, throwing a pointed look at Tony when he did.

When he felt all eyes falling on him, Tony quickly adopted a sheepish expression as he admitted, "Uh, yeah, Stark Industries investigated the possibility of using Vibranium to make weapons."

While he was willing to cut Tony a break after what had happened with Simon, Hank could not stop himself from scowling a little at Tony after he heard that, feeling that this was another example of why Tony was not even half the hero he tried claiming to be. Sora on the other hand had a different reaction to this. "I know that it seems tough and all, given how T'Challa seems to use weapons made of the stuff, but how could anyone else really hope to make weapons using Vibranium if Wakanda is the only place that's really worked with it?"

"Not all of it. Remember, Cap's shield is made of Vibranium, and after so many people saw how effective it was in World War II, a lot people were interested in making more things like it," Tony revealed to the kid. "That was a long time ago, in the case of my company's own research and investigations. My people tried to deal with King T'Chaka. Where is he now?"

T'Challa did not say anything in reply, but from the way he lowered his head, they all quickly figured out why he had remained silent. All feelings of unease were forgotten now, partly because the revelation was coupled with the fact that this likely meant that T'Challa now bared the burden of being his people's rightful king. Such a thing was not as important as the fact that T'Challa had lost his father though, and Sora had quickly walked over to him, placed a comforting hand on the young kind's shoulder, and said, "I'm sorry about your father. My own dad disappeared a long time ago when I was really young, so I can kind of relate. Just be thankful that you at least got to spend some time with your father before he passed."

The Keybearer's words seemed well received, given T'Challa's smile of thanks, and more than that, the whole team was slowly starting to reconsider their hesitance in providing T'Challa aid in his quest. "If this Man-Ape is going to put lives in danger, we have to do something," Captain America stated, showing that he was willing to help out even if the others were not.

"Lives are in danger, Avenger," T'Challa immediately insisted. He then reached into his belt and pulled out a small flash drive as he said, "Computer, satellite view of Wakanda."

"Wakanda can't be seen on satellite. Trust me, I've tried," Tony quickly told T'Challa even as the computer brought up a map of Africa.

"Maybe that's because the people in Wakanda have a way to keep anyone from seeing them unless they want to be seen," Sora suggested.

"Please. Like that could stop me or my tech, even if it were possible," Tony scoffed. "Wakanda's mostly farmers and tribal warriors."

"Zoom in," T'Challa suddenly commanded JARVIS, cutting into the argument. A minute later, an image of Wakanda appeared on the holographic display, clear as day, much to Tony's disbelief.

"Okay, how exactly do you know my systems inside and out," Tony demanded, hardly believing what was happening right now.

"I've studied them. Inside and out," was T'Challa's simple reply, and one could have sworn he sounded slightly smug when he said it.

"You were saying, Tony," Sora teased with a grin, earning him a mild scowl from Iron Man in reply.

The image of Wakanda continued to zoom in until they could see a large mountain where several people were gathered, and when they began to notice the full details, Captain America quickly recognized the green and yellow uniforms along with the emblem that many of them were wearing. "HYDRA."

Sora had heard about the terrorist group, both from his teammates and some of his own reading in regards to things on this world, but he did not really look into them that much until after Zemo had gotten into the mansion. Apparently, they had started out as a war organization for the Nazis in World War II, and were led by Captain America's greatest enemy, Red Skull. Even after the Skull had apparently fallen, HYDRA somehow managed to find a way to survive, until they eventually became one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world. Many times when HYDRA showed themselves, only SHIELD or some superheroes ever seemed able to handle them, so Sora was quickly beginning to understand why T'Challa was so desperate for their help. If the Wakandan people did not get in the way, then HYDRA certainly would, and as good as T'Challa seemed to be, no one was able to take on an entire army all by themselves without even a little bit of help.

The image on the monitor then zoomed in a little more so that it could focus on two particular individuals that appeared to be calling the shots for HYDRA, and Tony quickly recognized one of them. "That's Grim Reaper, one of Strucker's guys, but who's Abe Lincoln there?"

"I've met him. Ulysses Klaw," Hank revealed. "He created a device that converts Vibranium into a sonic weapon."

"Guess we know why he's there then," Sora commented just as the holographic monitor deactivated.

The room was silent for a moment afterwards, but one could easily tell that Avengers had now made up their minds on what they should do regarding T'Challa's request. "So, who's up for invading Wakanda," Wasp asked.

"I'm in," Sora replied with his hand up.

* * *

It was only a matter of minutes before the Quinjet had taken off with the five Avengers and their new friend on board, but most of them did wish that they had the full team with them right now. "Thor and Hulk still aren't responding to their ID cards," Tony groaned a few hours later when the sun had disappeared and became replaced by the moon and night sky. "I know Thor's probably taking a trip to fantasy land or something, but why's Hulk not answering?"

"Well, I did hear them heading out earlier. Said something about settling who was strongest between them or something and that they were going to an area Hulk knew about where no one could get hurt," Sora revealed.

"Why didn't they just use the training room," Tony asked.

Sora merely shrugged and said, "I think it was something along the lines of not wanting to break it beyond repair even for your stuff." The two then fell silent for a moment before Sora finally asked, "So can I fly the jet now?"

"No, Sora. There's no way in hell that I'm letting a kid who doesn't even have his learner's permit fly my _very_ _expensive_ jet," Tony tiredly denied for what was probably the fifth time since they had first stepped into the hangar. Sora had been asking him to let him fly the Quinjets even before that, and while Tony was willing to let the kid at least fly the thing in the simulator, Tony was not too eager to let the kid try his hand at the real thing. It did not matter that Sora was a really great pilot in the simulator, Tony was just not going to budge on this.

Sora pouted a little at Tony's latest denial, and then watched as a map was brought up for everyone to see, allowing them to review the flight path that T'Challa had recommended for them. To be honest though, most of the Avengers were a little concerned about said route, and it showed as Janet recounted their route aloud again. "So we need to go through Torment Forest, past Piranha Cove, but we to avoid the Chasm of…what was it? Icy Clouds?"

"Chilling Mists," T'Challa corrected.

"Right," Wasp nodded, but she still mentally groaned over how dangerous the whole thing was once more.

Hank had remained quiet for the most part since they took off, but he did not miss the way that Cap had been gazing out of the window oddly right from when they had leveled out at their current altitude. When that did not change, the size-changer finally asked, "You okay, Cap?"

Steve just sighed, "In my day, if something went this high, we didn't call it an airplane."

"What did you call it?"

Steve turned to the scientist with a small smile but otherwise serious expression, answered, "Science fiction."

Sora had smirked a little when he overheard Cap's answer, but his smile quickly faded when his gaze fell on T'Challa once again. Apparently, the Wakandan did not miss this fact, and he immediately asked, "Is there something that troubles you, Keybearer?"

"I was just…I was wondering if you could tell me about the Keyblade wielder you met before me. The one you mentioned during our fight at the mansion," Sora admitted, finally unable to withstand the suspense his curiosity was driving in regards to this matter.

If his face could be seen right then, everyone would have noticed T'Challa's nostalgic smile as he recounted the tale of his last encounter with a wielder of the Keyblade. "It was many years ago when I was very young. As I previously mentioned, the Vibranium Mound is both my people's treasure and our responsibility. As such, many devious fiends have come seeking to steel some Vibranium from us so that they could exploit it for their own selfish gain. One such villain had actually tricked a young man into helping him in his attempt. My father had managed to stop it, but only the young man was captured, having been left behind to take the true culprit's place. He would have faced punishment for the crime had he not later provided us with assistance in dealing with fowl creatures that then invaded our city. While our weapons did have some effect against these beasts, it was not too significant, but thankfully, the Keyblade wielded by the young man, named Terra was able to slay them quite easily. After witnessing his strength and prowess in battle, as well as seeing how Terra had not hesitated to protect our people from these creatures that he called Unversed, my father was willing to pardon the Keybearer for his crimes, so long as he promised to not allow others to deceive him into leading them to Wakanda again. Terra gave his word, and then led the hunt in finding the true criminal before parting for an unknown destination. Before he left, I had the privilege to speak with him so that I could ask what drove him in his own quest, and he told me that everything he did, even if it were to lead him down a dangerous path, he did for both the sake of innocents, and for his closest friends. From that moment on, I have considered him as a good friend, and as an inspiration as to the kind of man I wanted to be one day."

Sora was honestly amazed by what he had learned. He knew that there was a third Keyblade wielder to have come here around the same time as Ventus and Aqua, but this was the first time he had ever heard anything about him. From the sound of things, Terra was a very brave and strong person, and Sora wanted to ask T'Challa to tell him more, but his earlier sleepiness made itself known once more as he let loose a small yawn. When he noticed how tired the kid still seemed to be, Tony quickly recommended, "Why don't you try and catch up on some sleep, Sora? Even at top speed, it's still going to be a little bit before we finally reach Wakanda. Besides, can't have you fighting bad guys while your only half awake."

"Okay. Thanks Tony," Sora yawned once again, and after leaning his seat back a little, Sora quickly slipped into slumber land, sure that the rest of their flight was going to be relatively smooth, even with the very dangerous sounding route that T'Challa had recommended to them.

* * *

 _It had been a very beautiful day ever since they had woken up, and while they did make sure to get some light training and sparring in, the three pupils of Master Eraqus decided that it would be nice to just sit and relax as they watched the sky begin changing to the colors of sunset. Normally, they probably would not be relaxing like this until night had fallen so that they could do some stargazing, but today was just too nice to not take some time to sit and relax for a while. At least, that was the case for two of the three. Unlike his two friends, Ven was still down in the dumps over how he was not able to win a single spar against either one of them that day. Sure, he had only just started training with the two older pupils, but he still wished that he could win one spar against them, or at least not get thrown back so quickly._

 _Apparently, the oldest of the three, a tall, strong looking man seemed to notice the blonde's dismay, and decided that he needed to say something to cheer the kid up. The man did not have to think for long, because he quickly got an idea when he glanced down at the toy sword that his friend was holding. "Ven. You see all those dents and nicks you got," the older boy asked._

 _Ven did indeed see what his older friend was talking about, but he did not really get why he was bringing it up. Aqua had though, and she was happy to explain the other boy's reasoning for pointing them out. "Each one of those is proof you're learning."_

 _The other boy nodded in confirmation of that, and then grabbed his own wooden sword, which was actually made to look like a basic Keyblade instead of a regular sword, and then said, "You're trying too hard to move your body. You need to learn to let your body move you. Right?"_

 _Aqua nodded in response to her friend's words, but their young friend just looked confused. "I don't get it, Terra. How can I let my body move me," Ven asked, truly not getting what that meant._

 _Terra rubbed his chin in thought for a minute, trying to figure out a way to explain it, until he just gave up and said, "It's not really something that can be easily explained. What it means for you is something only you can figure out." Terra's explanation did not seem to raise Ven's spirits that much, and after glancing at his wooden Keyblade, he quickly thought of another approach. The other two then watched as Terra stood up, cleared his throat, and raised the toy sword while he recited, "In your hand, take this blade. And so long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, its wielder you shall one day be made."_

 _"What's THAT about," Aqua giggled, clearly amused by Terra's antics, while Ven just looked on in confusion. "Who went and made you Master?"_

 _"Being a Keyblade Master is all I've dreamed about," Terra explained._

 _Ven and Aqua quickly exchanged a small look before the blue haired girl reminded their friend, "Well, you're not the only one."_

 _"I know," Terra nodded with a smile. He then knelt back down to Ven and held out the wooden Keyblade to his younger friend as he finished, "You, me, and Ven all share the same dream."_

 _Ven looked at Terra's offered toy sword, and let out a happy smile at last, along with a short chuckle as he grasped the shaft of the wooden Keyblade. In that moment, a bond had been formed between him and the older boy. One that Ven was not really sure how to describe, but if he did have to put it into words, he would say that this was how it felt to have an older brother. Looking over to Aqua, Ven could feel a similar bond forming with her as she smiled at him reassuringly, the only difference being that it had the feeling of being the nature of a caring older sister, and somehow he just knew that these guys would definitely be more than just his friends. They would be like his new family, and more than anything, he wished that one day soon, they would all manage to reach that dream that all three of them shared._

* * *

While his most recent dream was a bit startling and confusing, mainly because of how he was seeing all of it through Ventus's eyes like he had during that vision he had on his first day of school, it was not the thing that had awoken Sora from his nap. No, what woke him up were the blaring alarms and explosions that were now ringing loudly and a quick glance told him that the latter sounds were not something done by his friends. "What happened? What's going on," Sora cried out in fright.

"We've been hit by Wakanda's defense tech," Hank shouted over the explosions that were rattling the Quinjet.

"But I thought that the Quinjet had the best cloaking tech that Tony's company could make," Sora protested.

"As I have previously informed Stark, Wakandan defense tech is better," T'Challa calmly explained, not appearing the least bit worried about their current situation, but still holding on so that he did not fall over.

When another explosion suddenly rattled the ship and they began heading down in a steep nosedive, everyone knew that they were heading right into a crash landing, and they all beginning to think that they would need to bail out. Thankfully, Tony managed to keep the Quinjet from taking too much more damage in their landing, somehow, but that did not stop them from slamming through the canopy of the forest below them. They did not even come to a stop until the Quinjet was finally caught in a large mess of vines and branches, but they all still held their breath until they were sure that they were not going to be moving anymore in a way that would have bad consequences for them.

After making sure everyone was okay, the group quickly exited the downed aircraft and made their way to the jungle floor below them. Even though they were all still alive and in one piece, not everyone was too happy with how things had turned out. "You owe me a jet," Tony growled at T'Challa as he landed amongst his teammates and their acquaintance.

"You chose not to listen to me, Stark. It was a mistake," T'Challa easily reminded him, immediately giving Sora a good idea as to how they had been spotted in their approach to Wakanda when he did. That did not mean that it was cooling Tony's temper any.

"You and me need to have a little talk, kitty," Tony retorted as he stormed over to T'Challa.

Sora was quick to get in between the two though, knowing that this was going to turn into a fight that they did not have time for if someone did not do something, and said, "Hey, I get that we're all mad right now about what happened, but in case you guys forgot, there's still the matter of some bad guys to fight and a country to save! Remember?"

"Yeah, Sora's right. We should really be somewhere else right now. You know, like in a big fight against HYDRA," Janet added, hoping to help drive the point home.

That got Iron Man to cool down, and he quickly shifted into his command mode so he could begin giving out orders to his team. "Right, here's the plan: we take down HYDRA and protect the Vibranium Mound. Then we deal with Man-Ape."

"That feels more like a summary of our goals than a plan," Sora whispered to Hank.

"Well in the mind of Tony Stark, that's all the planning that's necessary," Hank grumbled.

"Do not underestimate the Wakandan army, which is heading this way," T'Challa warned the iron Avenger, having spotted the flaw in his plan as easily as Sora had. What he did and said next though did not seem to be that much better in comparison. "I wish you well, but I will deal with Man-Ape myself."

The team all watched as T'Challa took off into the forest, climbing over tree branches, and swinging through the air like a regular jungle man, until he disappeared from sight. Seeing that, Wasp could only stare from where she had perched herself on Hank's shoulder and say, "And he left."

"You have got to be kidding me. What…I," Iron Man groaned, barely able to believe that the guy had just ditched them like that. He somehow managed to get it together somewhat, and then looked to two members of his team, and said, "Okay, fine. Cap, Sora, go after him."

"What? But what if you…" Sora started to argue, until Steve placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and gave him a hard stare that said not to argue.

"Understood," Captain America replied, and he then turned to start leading the way after T'Challa, silently telling Sora that he should do the same.

"Yeah, okay," Sora eventually sighed, and he too began racing after the rightful king of Wakanda, easily keeping pace and jumping up into the trees along with Cap so that they could catch up a little faster.

"Wow, he didn't argue with me or anything," Tony commented in slight surprise. His tone quickly turned into a joking nature as he glanced to his remaining teammates and said, "Uh, everyone, take notes."

"He's a soldier. He follows orders and makes sure that others do the same. Even bad ones," Ant-Man reminded Tony with a small glare, earning him glare in return from Tony and an eye-roll from Janet. To be honest, Jan was a little annoyed with how antagonistic Hank was still acting towards Tony, even after what happened with Simon, but she was glad that her partner was at least letting up a little after said event. Still, this time, she could understand Hank's frustration. "Now, it's just the three of us against all of Wakanda, HYDRA, and a supervillain."

"That's how much faith I have in you two," Iron Man reassured his two teammates, his voice just brimming with confidence. When the insect themed heroes just gave him skeptical looks in return Tony quickly added, "Come on, I've dealt with HYDRA before. And Wakanda, not a problem."

Just as Tony had said that, Wakanda decided to prove once again why it was unwise to underestimate her people, because Tony's sensors had instantly let out a warning that helped him to dodge a spear that would have gone through his helmet if he had not moved aside just in time. Not only that, but when the spear impacted the ground, they all quickly realized that its tip was made of Vibranium, because it quickly started glowing until the point where it finally exploded, sending all three Avengers flying. Iron Man ended up knocked right into the trunk of a really thick and large tree, and when he looked up, he quickly paused at the sight of the Wakandan army all pointing sharp spears at him with angry looks. A quick scan of the spears allowed Tony to see that the spears were made with Vibranium as well, just like that first one, and that ended up being what finally drew Tony to admit, "Okay, maybe a little problem."

What none of the Avengers or the Wakandans knew, was that high up in the shadow of trees, another figure was looking down at them, and watching as the two groups engaged one another in a fight. "These guys are the ones you got to help you out? The two that just left seemed way better suited for handling this than these three," the figure muttered under her breath. She then saw Iron Man blast a few Wakandans away with his repulsors, while Wasp zapped some others with her stingers, distracting them long enough for Ant-Man to shrink down and come in with some quick knock out blows, and then added, "Well, at least they aren't completely helpless. Still, I should probably keep an eye on them for a bit."

* * *

While the Avengers were battling against the Wakandan army, Klaw was demonstrating his vibranium powered sonic weapon to Grim Reaper and Man-Ape, shattering a large panther statue to provide an example of its capabilities. "And that is only scratching the surface of the metal's potential," Klaw explained excitedly. "An army equipped with these could…"

"It'll do," Grim Reaper interrupted. The cloaked man then turned to Man-Ape with a small bow as he said, "Baron Strucker and HYDRA thank you for your…openness, Your Highness."

"You think me a fool," Man-Ape demanded. "I know you outsiders value the Vibranium more than the gold you offer."

"I'm not one to judge," Reaper assured the current king of Wakanda.

"The Vibranium has corrupted Wakanda! Weakened it! I will restore my land to its natural state without the Panther Tribe's technology! If HYDRA will pay my price, they are welcome to it," Man-Ape then informed Strucker's liaison.

"They will pay _more_ for the Vibranium," Klaw assured M'Baku. "Let me…"

"Klaw, watch yourself," Reaper warned the man.

"If Strucker thinks he can cut me out, he is sorely mistaken," Klaw retorted. "Only I have the technology to tap into the Vibranium's power! You do as I say, or that metal will blow up right in your face!"

"Now that's not very friendly, is it," Grim Reaper asked rhetorically as he raised his scythe arm to Klaw's throat.

"Lord M'Baku," a shaman suddenly interrupted. "Wakandan defenses have shot down an unidentified aircraft! An army division has engaged outsiders within our borders!"

Man-Ape roared in anger for a moment before he turned to Reaper and warned him, "If HYDRA crosses me, you will not live to regret it."

"No, this isn't HYDRA. This is something else," Reaper corrected, and he had a hunch that he knew exactly what it was.

* * *

T'Challa easily swung through the trees in the jungles of his home, taking in the clean, forest air with a happiness that could only come from being home again after so long. Thinking of the fact that he was home only served to remind him of why had left though, and he knew that his happiness would only become complete after he had made Man-Ape pay for what he had done. That was all that he needed to move even faster than he already was, but it was still not fast enough to lose the two Avengers that were currently following behind him. Still, he was impressed that they were able to keep up with him in his natural environment, and given how he had dragged the Avengers into all of this, he owed them a few words to show that much at the very least.

"Your tenacity is admirable, Captain, and your own abilities at traversing this place is quite impressive for one so young, Keybearer, but you are both still very out of place in the jungle," T'Challa praised the two after finally coming to a stop, allowing both Avengers to finally catch up to him, properly.

"Hey, you're the one who came to us asking for help, and part of that help includes not letting you take off on your own," Sora easily replied. "What if something happens to you before you even get there like a HYDRA ambush, or a sneak attack from Wakandan warriors, or even the Heartless showing up?"

Apparently, T'Challa did not want to hear any of it, because he was quick to argue with the kid. "This is my burden to bear, alone."

"So the Avengers were what? A distraction," Captain America questioned, heatedly. He clearly did not like what T'Challa was implying here. "You're just using us to get past your own people?"

"To be fair, he did say that was why he needed our help to begin with," Sora pointed out. "But that still doesn't mean that's all we're good for."

"Man-Ape is mine," T'Challa growled, showing even more of what he intended to do when he had cornered his foe.

"Well, we've got our orders. Besides, we both owe you one," Steve reminded him.

"He's right. You saved our lives, remember? So why not let us help out," Sora questioned, and his tone of voice showed that he had a really hard time understanding why T'Challa was so opposed to them being here right now.

Black Panther looked like he was getting ready to fight the two with more than words after that, and Sora and Cap both quickly tensed in response, showing that they would be ready if things came to that. Thankfully, they did not, as T'Challa relaxed his fighting stance and turned away from them, unclenched his fists, and immediately began explaining with more emotion in his voice than the other two had ever heard since they had met him. They just wish that it was an emotion other than pain. "Man-Ape took my father, and I did nothing! I failed him."

"So what're you going to do when you've got Man-Ape? Kill him? Make him suffer to the point where he can somehow grasp how you felt before finally ending his life," Sora questioned, starting to get a little angry himself, surprising both Steve and T'Challa a little. "Look, I know it hurts to have something like that taken from you. My home was lost to darkness and my mom and best friends may be either gone or lost somewhere on another world. Every time I see a Heartless, my mind just goes back to the fact that they were responsible for all of that, and sometimes, I can't help but wonder if someone else had helped them. That suspicion has only grown after I met a guy calling himself Night Hunter, but that's beside the point."

"And just what is the point you are trying to make, child," T'Challa demanded, wanting Sora to just get right to it.

"That despite all of that, if I ever do find out that Night Hunter or someone else is responsible for helping the Heartless destroy my home, I don't want to kill them if I can help it. I just want them to face justice," Sora replied with full conviction, leaving Steve feeling proud of the kid while T'Challa was a little shocked by him.

"But why," T'Challa asked, still sounding pretty angry. "This would be a villain who destroyed your home and perhaps your loved ones along with it, assuming that they did not survive. How can you not want to exact vengeance upon them?"

"Who said I didn't? Of course I want to make them pay for what they did," Sora admitted, definitely getting angry with T'Challa's attitude on the matter. When he realized that he was starting to raise his voice a little, he quickly took a deep, calming breath before he went on with what he was saying. "That wouldn't mean anything would change though. Mom always told me that my dad had a saying: if someone hurts us and we hurt them back in the same way, then we would just be sinking to their level, and when that happens, we become no better than the person who hurt us. That's why I'm choosing to be a hero and an Avenger. What do you plan to choose?"

T'Challa had fallen silent after all of that. Sure, most of his silence was due to Sora's heated admission, but the rest of it was definitely because of what he had to say afterwards. This young boy, who was probably not that much older than a friend of his, had been hurt so much, and yet he was not wavering at all in his beliefs of justice. It was actually rather admirable, and made him wonder what that made him for going after Man-Ape in the way that he currently was. Captain America was just as surprised by what Sora said. This was the first time he knew of that Sora had admitted to thinking that there was something else behind what happened to his island home besides the Heartless, and he had to wonder just how long Sora had been wondering about that. Had this always been there, or did it only just start after his encounter with Night Hunter? Steve was not entirely sure, but he did make a note in his head to ask about it later.

The silence held in the air for a few more moments, and Sora was starting to get a little nervous about how T'Challa would answer him, but before the young king could, the three heard something in the trees coming towards them. Thinking that they had been found out, they all quickly tensed for a fight, and it was a good thing that they had gotten on guard, because a second later, T'Challa was leaping out of the way of a sonic blast, while Cap had to turn his back towards another so that he could block it with his shield. Sora then rolled aside of a third blast before summoning his Keyblade and spinning it around a few times so that he could block all the blasts that came afterwards as best as he could. Captain America then jumped to stand at Sora's back, his shield now on his arm and able to help him block any shots that Sora could have missed, but it seemed like they were both able to keep up on their own fairly well. Knowing that quickly told Steve that this was not a large force, but likely just a single person, or even two people working in sync with one another.

It turned out to be the former, as T'Challa proved when he finally made his move on their attacker, spinning down behind them from the trees, and then pinning them to the ground with his claws sharpened and ready to strike. When he saw that the person in question was a young woman that looked about sixteen at best with dark hair and dressed in Wakandan armor that was slightly modified so that it was a mix between traditional and modern, the rightful king halted any further strikes, and that served as a signal for the two Avengers to stand down as well. They did not drop their guard though, because for all they knew, this person could use T'Challa's hesitance to their advantage and begin attacking again.

That idea went out the window a little while after T'Challa had let it known that he did indeed recognize this person by uttering her name aloud. "Shuri!"

"T'Challa," the girl asked in awe, hesitantly taking the hand that T'Challa offered to her so he could help her up.

Once Shuri was on her feet, T'Challa pulled back his mask, allowing her to see his smiling face as he proclaimed, "It is so good to see you are still all right."

Shuri immediately smiled and wrapped her arms around T'Challa tightly as she cheered, "Welcome home, brother!"

"Brother," Sora questioned, dismissing his Keyblade and reminding the siblings that he and Cap were still here.

"I'm guessing this is the sister you had told us about," Steve stated with a smile, slipping his shield onto his back again, seeing as it did not seem like he would need it at the moment.

"Yes she is," T'Challa confirmed. "Captain, Keyblade Samurai, this is Shuri, Wakanda's brightest young scientific mind and leader in Wakandan technology advancement, expert statesman, expert academic, princess of our nation, and my little baby sister."

"Oh stop that. I haven't been your _baby_ sister for several years now," Shuri scolded, playfully swatting his chest as she did. She then looked over the two Avengers for a moment before she finally asked, "Are these outsiders the best help you could find for saving our home? The boy looks like he's younger than me."

"Hey! We're right here," Sora snapped in retort, clearly annoyed.

"They are both more than capable enough, Shuri," T'Challa assured his sister. "Captain America is a veteran of World War II after all, one who wields a shield made of Vibranium, and Sora is a Keyblade Wielder, like Terra. Surely, you saw his weapon before."

Shuri's eyes widened a little at the latter statement, and she immediately cast a look towards Sora, clearly asking if he could prove that. Sora just grinned in reply before he held his hand out in front of him and summoned Kingdom Key into his grip, making Shuri's eyes widen even more than they already had. "I thought I had been imagining it," Shuri whispered as she stepped forward with a hand held out to the Keyblade, as if she meant to touch it in order to verify its authenticity. "And yet…it's real. Another actual Keyblade, right before my eyes. Though, I never would've thought it would be in the hands of someone so young."

"Yeah, I seem to get that a lot," Sora shrugged in response. He then watched Shuri as she continued to study the Keyblade in fascination, until he asked, "Would you like to hold it for a minute?" When Shuri gave him a surprised in look in response, Sora quickly added, "It'll jump right back into my hand after said minute is up, but I doubt Kingdom Key would mind if I let you hold it for a little bit."

Shuri seemed slightly hesitant to take Sora up on his offer, until she finally nodded with an eager smile. Sora then carefully passed the Keyblade over to her, not noticing the slight smiles that Steve and T'Challa were giving them as it happened, and Shuri could not help but marvel at the magnificent weapon right from the second its handle had touched her palm. She ran her hand over the metal of Kingdom Key's shaft for a moment, feeling how it was cool yet at the same time, somehow incredibly warm, and she was about to try a practice swing or two, just to get a feel for it when the Kingdom Key finally disappeared in a flash of light before reappearing in the grasp of its true owner. You would think that Shuri would have been a little upset by that, but instead, she only grinned even more, apparently impressed by how the weapon seemed to show a kind of loyalty to its wielder, and that made Sora smile in return.

After another moment, Shuri finally commented, "It's actually lighter than I thought it would be." She and Sora shared a short laugh afterwards, and once it had passed, the princess of the two said, "Thank you for letting me get a better look at your Keyblade. I think you and I could be good friends, Keyblade Samurai."

"Same here, Shuri, but please, just call me Sora," the youngest Avenger smiled in reply.

As much as he enjoyed seeing Shuri make a few more friends her own age, T'Challa still had to interrupt the moment she was sharing with Sora. There were still matters of greater importance to attend to after all. "Tell me, Shuri, what has happened while I have been gone," Black Panther questioned.

Shuri's smile immediately disappeared when she heard that question, and she immediately locked her gaze to her brother as she began to explain. "Exactly what we feared would happen if M'Baku were to seize power. He's been selling Vibranium to outsiders in exchange for mere gold, shutting down all research on new technology involving Vibranium, including medical, and anyone who dares to question him is either subject to his cruelty right then and there, or are just simply taken away and never seen again. Our mutual friend and I have done all we can to sabotage him and his outsider allies, but even with the resources that we were able to secure from my lab, we are not able to do too much."

"And what about mother? Have you seen her," T'Challa asked, his voice showing how desperate he was for a good answer.

"We have, and we already rescued her. Nakia took her somewhere safe as soon as we managed to get her out of the prison that M'Baku put her in," Shuri smiled in reply.

T'Challa let out a sigh of relief when he heard that, while Steve and Sora both smiled at hearing that their friend still had one living parent. That just left one more matter to address. "Where is Man-Ape right now," Steve asked.

"He's either finishing up his meeting with the outsiders or sitting in father's chair at the ceremonial battle ground," Shuri scowled in reply, clearly not liking the fact that M'Baku was sitting where her father had any more than her brother did.

"Then I know where I am going," T'Challa determined. He was just about to head out when Sora grabbed his arm, and he turned back to see the boy giving him a slightly pleading look. T'Challa knew what Sora was silently asking him, but he could not quite answer the boy's question just yet, so instead, he simply begged, "Please Keyblade Samurai, let me do this."

Hearing how desperate T'Challa was, Sora found he could do nothing more than let the rightful king go, and they all watched as T'Challa took off into the jungle on his own again. All three of them could understand how T'Challa was feeling right now, Shuri especially so, but they still did not like how he was so insistent on doing things alone. Shuri was the first to speak out against letting her brother go off on his own like this, and said, "We can't let my brother fight alone like this. M'Baku defeated my father through some sort of underhanded trickery, and I know that he will do the same to T'Challa if we don't help him."

"Who said anything about letting him go it alone," Captain America asked with a smirk. "Like I said before, Sora and I have got our orders, and letting him go it alone would mean that we were defying those orders."

Shuri looked to Sora, and when he gave her the same reassuring smile she had to smile in return, grateful that these two were so willing to help her and her brother like this. "Follow me then. I know this jungle better than either of you, and I know a few shortcuts that will help to make sure we get there sooner."

Both Avengers nodded in agreement, and just like that, they were all racing after T'Challa once again. As they were going though, Sora glanced over to Shuri and asked, "So is there some sort of formality thing regarding how the ruler of your nation should talk, because I couldn't help but notice that you use contractions while for the most part, your brother doesn't."

"Really? He's been doing that with you too? I thought it was just something he did when among family or the elders," Shuri admitted with a smile. Sora could only laugh along with her after that, and Steve had to smile at seeing the two getting the chance to act like the kids they were despite the circumstances that they were caught in the middle of. Lord knows that these kids needed that kind of thing when living in this world of heroes, villains, and national politics.

* * *

Back at the Quinjet, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Wasp's Wakandan attackers were now all lying on the ground unconscious as the three sat atop the damaged Quinjet to catch their breath. While he was sitting there, Tony coughed, "Okay, so that was…a little harder than it should've been."

Ant-Man just mentally shook his head at Stark as he studied a spear that he had taken from one of their attackers. "For an uncharted African nation, they've got tech that's decades ahead of anything we've got," Hank observed. "If HYDRA gets their hands on any of this…"

"They won't," Tony assured Hank as he stood up and closed his face mask up once again. "But I kind of wish Thor and Hulk would answer their stupid phones."

"Considering how often Hulk has accidentally crushed his ID card or any other form of phone that we've gotten for him, I'm surprised that's really bothering you that much," Wasp commented.

"Hey, the last ID card I gave Hulk is supposed to be able to hold up against his strength unless he's a lot more pissed off than we've ever seen him be before now. As for the phones…I'm working on that," Tony defended, and he quickly took off into the air, flying towards the Vibranium mine with Wasp and Ant-Man following after him.

While the three were flying away, their mystery observer was left rather impressed with the fact that the three had managed to fight off the Wakandan forces, and without any interference on her part. Even so, she was not entirely certain that they could kick HYDRA out of the Vibranium mine without something happening along the way, so that gave her all the more reason to follow them. The fact that she was quickly learning to like these guys more and more every minute had very little to do with it.

* * *

While that was going on, the shaman that had alerted M'Baku to the invading outsiders had approached Man-Ape's throne to report on the situation at hand. "Our warriors in the jungle do not respond. I beg you, rid Wakanda of all the outsiders," the shaman pleaded with his current king. "T'Chaka would never…"

"I AM KING, not the Black Panther," M'Baku roared in response. "The Black Panther is no more!"

"You are wrong M'Baku," a voice called out, and both Man-Ape and the shaman turned to see the very warrior that Man-Ape had just mentioned standing before them. "The Black Panther challenges you for the throne of Wakanda!"

"T'Challa," the shaman gasped in surprise and hidden joy. "A challenge has been issued. By tribal law, you must…"

"I have no use for tradition," M'Baku only growled in reply. "Crush the Panther cub."

The shaman could only watch as the very guards that T'Chaka had trained attacked the son of their former king. T'Challa was quick to defend himself, but he was quickly overwhelmed by the combined strength of the two women due to the fact that he did not wish to fight back and harm them, and soon enough he was pinned down beneath their spears. "You do not have to do this," T'Challa told the two.

They seemed to consider their former prince's words for a moment, but in the end they raised their spears to strike down that last of the Panther Tribe. Just before they could hit him, a red, white, and blue blur suddenly soared over T'Challa and snapped the spear heads off, followed by a blast of vibrational energy that knocked one of the two away, while the other was forced back by a blast of ice. Turning to the source, T'Challa started to scowl a little when he laid eyes on Captain America, Sora, and Shuri, and was about to snap at them for interfering when Cap beat him to it. "You can face Man-Ape alone," the super soldier stated once his shield had returned to his hand.

"But anyone else is fair game for us," Shuri told her brother, her gauntlets charging up for another blast already.

"Besides, we can't let you have all the fun," Sora finished as he dropped down into his battle stance.

Hearing that, T'Challa found all of his protests dying in his throat, and while he was happy that they had come for him, the rest of the people here were not too sure how to react. At least, not until Man-Ape stood up and broke the silence. "Tear the outsiders and the treacherous princess apart. I will deal with the Panther."

* * *

While Black Panther, Captain America, Sora, and Shuri were facing off against Man-Ape and the two Wakandan royal guards, Iron Man, Wasp, and Ant-Man had stormed into the Vibranium mine to engage HYDRA and Klaw. Though, Klaw was a much more hesitant to fight against the Avengers than his HYDRA partner was. "Are you all insane?! We cannot do this in the Vibranium mine," Klaw shouted out, but Iron Man, Wasp, and Reaper did not seem to listen, while Pym just flew up to Klaw.

"Do you know what I like most about Africa," Hank asked Klaw. "Dorylus mandibularis, better known as African Army Ants."

As he said this, said ants had begun crawling up to Klaw and entrapping him in their grasp, forcing the evil scientist to force the insects back with his sonic weapon, and that, combined with Wasp's attacks on Reaper and Iron Man blasting HYDRA soldiers left and right, caused the vibranium mound to start sparking with energy. "Pym, you fool," Klaw shouted as he pointed his weapon at the Ant-Man in warning. "If the Vibranium mound absorbs too much energy…"

"It'll overload, and with that much Vibranium the explosion will take out half of Africa," Pym finished in fear. "Wasp! Iron Man!"

Sadly, Ant-Man's moment of distraction, allowed a HYDRA soldier an opening to exploit, only for that soldier's shot to hit the vibranium mound. Klaw fired his sonic weapon at the soldier in warning to stay back, but Grim Reaper misunderstood his intentions, and armed a laser on his scythe as he said, "I think we're done with you, Klaw."

Grim Reaper fired his weapon and the blast instantly sent Klaw falling down into the vibranium mound, with his sonic weapon still firing. The minute he hit the mound, the continuous burst from his weapon caused him to suddenly start to change and distort until he suddenly turned into a being of pure energy that seemed to resonate with the vibranium. The thing that was once Klaw then shouted out, "The sound…The sound! I am the sound! I can hear you. HYDRA, you snakes."

The minute he shouted that, Klaw shot off a pair of energy tendrils at some HYDRA soldiers that were moving carts of vibranium out of the mine, sending them falling to the ground, or causing them to get caught in his grasp. It did not last long though, as Wasp and Iron Man were quick to open fire on the monster that stood before them, freeing the captured soldiers as they did, and saving others as well in the process. They only made a minor note of Grim Reaper ordering all the remaining HYDRA forces to retreat with whatever they already had, as they flew up to think of a way to deal with the new, more pressing matter before them. "So does anyone have a plan? Mine is ear plugs, but it's kind of short-term," Wasp joked.

Iron Man's response was to simply fire a repulsor at Klaw, but it only resulted in Klaw smashing Tony into the ground, and the vibranium mound sparking even more than it was before. Wasp quickly flew up and started firing her stingers at Klaw, giving Ant-Man some time to get to Tony and help the armored hero to his feet. "Blasting him wasn't your best plan," Hank told Stark as he lifted the Avenger leader to his feet.

"No kidding," Tony retorted. He then got serious and said, "Hank, you know vibranium better than anyone else. What happened, and how do we stop it?"

"Whatever's happened to Klaw, it appears that he's become some kind of sound form. His body is now made of pure sound," Hank studied.

"So we have to shut him up. How," Tony then asked.

"I saw Klaw transform. I can't explain it, but his sound form is somehow being projected from his sonic emitter, and we can contain it with the same thing that created it. Vibranium." Hank then turned to Wasp as he said, "Jan, you keep Klaw busy. Tony and I have work to do."

Janet nodded to Hank as the two scientists headed off to do their work, but the minute she glanced back at Klaw and his sound form, she had to question Hank's sanity in asking little, tiny her to keep that huge monster busy on her own. Shaking herself out of this momentary lapse of fear, the Wasp quickly flew up to engage Klaw once again.

* * *

Back in the Wakanda capital, Cap and Sora were doing their best against the two female guards, but even with Shuri's help, they found the two to be quite the challenge. Now that's not to say that they were underestimating these two because they were women, they both knew better than to do that, but they were holding back because they were T'Challa's people, and they did not want to hurt them more than necessary. As the woman in red charged at the captain, she leaped into the air, and landed a kick into Cap's shield before pushing off. The minute she tried to charge him though, Steve had retaliated by slamming his shield into her. Sora's battle against the woman in yellow was going about as well, but thankfully, Sora had one ace up his sleeve that the royal guard of Wakanda did not: magic. Sure, his control of said abilities were not perfect, but after practicing what he did know in the mansion's training room for a while, he was now able to get his Keyblade to at least shoot ice shards and fireballs at someone whenever he wanted, and that was proving to be a big help against his opponent. Whenever he needed a little extra breathing room, he would fire off a blast of fire at the ground to create a smokescreen, and then roll back before charging in to slash at her again, and whenever she tried to attack him from a distance, Sora was quick to fire off a blast of ice that prevented her strike from hitting.

Of course, having Shuri ready to blast either of the two with her gauntlets definitely helped, but she was not just sitting back and playing support the entire time. Eventually, when she saw Sora's strategy was starting to fail, she quickly jumped in to provide her new friend as much support as she could, and from what Sora saw, she was almost as good of a fighter as her older brother, if not better. Sure, she tended to use her gauntlets to fight back against their opponent for the most part, but she also displayed quite the acrobatic and martial art ability as well, and would often find a way to use her gauntlets to help supplement or even enhance her strikes when necessary. With Shuri's help, it seemed that Sora was going to be able to turn the tide on this fight a lot more quickly, and the smile that he shared with her told him that she was thinking the same thing.

As for the fight between Black Panther and Man-Ape, M'Baku was living up to his name in each of his attacks, as he slammed his fists into the ground and threw about his massive size and power against T'Challa, but thankfully the young Panther's smaller size and quick reflexes allowed him to stay ahead of Man-Ape and simply leap aside, around, and over M'Baku while tiring him out at the same time. The minute T'Challa saw that his opponent was beginning to tire just enough, he pulled out one of vibranium daggers and charged at the Man-Ape before landing a flying kick onto the larger man, followed by a slash with his dagger. T'Challa then followed up with a series of precision strikes against M'Baku, while M'Baku simply continued to try and land a blow against the Panther, until finally, Man-Ape was lying face down on the ground. "Shall I show you the same mercy you showed my father," T'Challa demanded as he combined two of his vibranium daggers into an energy staff.

"Ask him yourself when you join him," Man-Ape retorted, and he immediately pulled out a small device that began to emit a powerful sound wave. As the sound wave continued to resonate, T'Challa grasped his head and cried out in pain, dropping his staff as he did, and allowing M'Baku to rise up as he continued to subject the Black Panther to the sonic attack.

Captain America, Sora, and Shuri all saw this and immediately tried to move and help him, but they were quickly blocked off by the two royal guards once again, and soon found themselves forced to watch as the brave young man continued to suffer his opponent's treacherous attack, much to Shuri's displeasure. "Get out of my way! He's killing my brother, can't you see that," Shuri begged, but despite the reluctance that the two guards seemed to show in their eyes from holding the three back, it did not look like they were going to move.

"A gift from Klaw," M'Baku explained. "Fitting. You meet your end the same way your father did, but you are not even the man he was. You go to outsiders for help, but no outsider can help you now."

Suddenly, the sound of an explosion caught his attention, and M'Baku turned to see something erupt from the mountain in which the vibranium mine lay just before Grim Reaper's transport flew off. Seeing M'Baku's moment of distraction, T'Challa rose to his feet, and began to push against the assault of the sonic device that Man-Ape was using against him, even as M'Baku increased its intensity and tried to back away. "I am not the same man as my father M'Baku," T'Challa told the man as he raised his clawed glove and extended said claws. "For my rage, is greater!"

With that declaration, T'Challa drew his hand back and then unleashed a mighty slash onto M'Baku's chest, knocking the evil tyrant that threatened his home for so long down. When Man-Ape looked up again, barely able to rise, and just in time to see T'Challa crushing the sonic device beneath his boot and then proceed to stand over him once again, right in the perfect position to end his life. When he realized this, M'Baku immediately goaded, "Well what are you waiting for, cub? Claim your vengeance. That is what you want, yes? To end my life and avenge your father? Then do it."

T'Challa glared down at M'Baku, his fury towards the man building more and more with each passing second, and he could feel his fingers just itching to run the claws of his gloves through the man that murdered his father and nearly destroyed his home. He was fully prepared to end this man, but when he glanced over to the ones who had helped him get here, he saw Sora giving him a steady look that reminded him of the boy's words from earlier. Not only that, but he also saw that his sister had a sad, pleading look on her face, and he knew she was silently begging him to not bloody his hands like this. When he saw how those two were both looking at him, T'Challa finally understood what Sora was trying to tell him, and he simply lowered his claws, retracting them into his gloves as he did. "I will not kill you, M'Baku," T'Challa declared. "I am not the same man my father was, but I am also not a monster who would kill needlessly and without honor like you. If I were to end your life, then I would truly be disgracing my father's memory and legacy. Make no mistake though, you will face justice for your crimes against Wakanda, and our nation will never again have to fear your tyranny so long as I draw breath."

With his piece said, T'Challa reared his fist back and dealt one final blow to Man-Ape, knocking him out, right when the Wakandan people began to approach the arena to see what had happened for themselves. When he noticed his people had gathered here, T'Challa pointed an accusing finger at Man-Ape and shouted, "This is the man who has brought catastrophe to our land! The one who took your king through cowardice and dishonor!"

Everyone stared in silence for a few moments, until the shaman approached the edge of the circle and raised his staff and began to chant, "T'Challa! T'Challa! T'Challa!"

The chant was soon joined by the rest of T'Challa's people, and he raised a hand to the two royal guards who still stood ready to fight Captain America, Sora, and Shuri, immediately allowing them to stand down. After allowing the chant to continue for a few more moments, T'Challa crossed his arms over his chest, and shouted, "Wakanda forever!"

"Wakanda forever," the people replied as they repeated his salute.

"Wakanda forever," Shuri repeated, doing the same as her brother and people, before giving Sora a small look that implied he should do the same.

Sora was not opposed to doing so, and once he had dismissed his Keyblade, he immediately went to stand next to Shuri, crossed his arms like the Panther siblings had, and declared, "Wakanda forever!"

Captain America looked on in silence, not following his younger friend's example, but still showing his respect with a smile and salute to T'Challa all the same. At that very moment, the Black Panther had been reborn, and Wakanda's true king had freed his land.

* * *

Back inside the vibranium mine, Wasp was continuing to do her best to distract Klaw, but soon enough, the man turned sound form released a powerful sound wave that caused Jan to stop and cover her ears in a vain attempt to block out the sound, and things became even worse when the being rose out of the mountain and the wave spread to the rest of Wakanda, causing the people chanting outside, Captain America, Sora, Shuri and T'Challa to stop and cover their own ears as well. It probably would have escalated even further had a bright light not suddenly lit up the cavern right in front of Klaw's face. The sound monster let out a roar of agony as it moved to cover its eyes, and Janet had to wonder both who had done that, and how this thing could even still see when it did not appear to really have eyes. At least, not in the sense that she could tell.

She soon had at least one of her questions answered when someone garbed in a tan cloak that covered nearly all of their body, save for the bottom half of their legs and their black over-the-knee socks beneath tan knee-length sneaker boots raced out of the shadows and circled around Klaw from the opposite side of where she was. A moment later, the cloaked individual withdrew what looked like a large shuriken and tossed it directly at Klaw, hoping to get his attention for a moment. Her attack did not necessarily seem to hurt claw, but it did get his attention, since he turned and snarled in her direction. "You again," Klaw growled. "Rotten, interfering, interloper! You should've stayed in whatever hole you crawled out of!"

The figure just caught their shuriken on its return trip and gave a two-finger salute in return to Klaw before they turned to rushing around the mine in an effort to avoid getting hit by the sound monster. When they noticed Wasp watching them, the figure smiled and gave a little wave to the size-changer before redirecting Janet's attention onto the task at hand. Wasp was certainly not complaining, because whoever this person was, they were making her job of distracting this thing much easier. It did not stop her from mentally shouting for Hank and Tony to hurry the hell up though.

As that was going on, Tony was just finishing drilling a hole into some raw vibranium ore as he told Hank, "Honestly, I thought this plan would be a little more high-tech."

"The vibranium should contain the sound from Klaw's sonic emitter. There's just a small chance that the vibrational shockwave could cause destructive interference and then explode," Hank then warned Tony as the armored hero scooped up the vibranium he needed.

Tony paused to stare at Hank for a minute and then stood up as he said, "I heard destructive and explode."

"Of course we'll have to get to the emitter first," Hank then continued, almost like Iron Man had not said anything. "You'll have to fly into Klaw. It might…tingle…a lot."

"Great," Iron Man said sarcastically as he looked towards the sound form. He then leaped into the air and blasted towards Klaw at his maximum speed. The minute he was inside, he was bombarded with a massive amount of sound and commented, "This is less like tingled, and more like horrible pain!"

A minute after he had said that, J.A.R.V.I.S. had begun a countdown to structural integrity failure, and just when he reached two, Iron Man slammed the sonic emitter into the vibranium container, slapped the lid over it, and then ended up crashing down into the rocks behind Klaw. Shortly after, the sound form vanished, and Klaw emerged in its place, restored to his normal form. "I can't believe that worked," Hank softly exclaimed as the vibranium began to stop building energy and finally calm. "Tony, you did great! How do you feel," he then asked.

"Great, now make me stop vibrating," Iron Man replied, his voice as shaky as his body was at the moment due to flying through the sound form.

Janet could not help but giggle at their fearless leader's comment and situation, and then turned to try and find the person who had helped her distract Klaw. When she did though, Janet was surprised to see that whoever they were, the figure had already disappeared without a trace. She had to wonder if it was a Wakandan who was not willing to accept M'Baku as their leader, but somehow, she was not entirely sure that was the case.

* * *

A few minutes later, after Hank and Wasp had finally gotten Iron Man to stop vibrating, the three met up with T'Challa and their fellow Avengers in the Wakanda capital. Sora was just about to introduce Shuri to the other three, but before he could utter a word they were surrounded by Wakandan warriors once again. This time, none of them made an aggressive move against them, and instead decided to see how this would play out. "The true king of Wakanda has returned," the shaman from earlier declared as he stepped forward and kneeled before T'Challa. "Now we may purify our land of the outsiders and return to the old ways."

"Rise, my friend," T'Challa told the shaman as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "Outsiders may have threatened Wakanda, but outsiders saved us as well. The old ways allowed Man-Ape to do this, and the old ways must change." As he said this, the warriors pointing weapons at the Avengers immediately stood down, and T'Challa then addressed the people. "My first order as king is to let the council lead Wakanda. A council of the people, headed up by my mother, Ramonda and my sister, Shuri. We can no longer hide ourselves away waiting for our enemies to come to us. What happens in Wakanda affects the world. So I will go out into the world, and I will fight alongside our new allies!"

Captain America nodded in acceptance of T'Challa when he said this while Sora smiled at both him and Shuri, but right when he was about to praise Shuri for her new job, Iron Man had to point out a few things to the Panther sibling who just decided that he would be joining the team. "You attacked us, you used us, you abandoned us, and now you want to join us? Why should we trust you," the armored hero asked.

"You shouldn't. I will earn your trust, should you allow me to join you," Black Panther offered as he stepped up to Iron Man.

Tony still did not seem willing to accept this, but then Wasp flew up to him and whispered, "He's probably our best bet for a ride home too."

"You're in," Tony then immediately said, and the two leaders shook hands, sealing the deal. Sora could only smile eager for the chance to be on a team with an actual king, until Shuri suddenly gave him a light punch in the arm.

"Be sure to look out for my brother, Sora, because I'll be coming after you if something happens to him," Shuri informed her new friend, but Sora could tell from her smile that she was joking.

"Something tells me that you'd have to get there before the rest of your nation's army," Sora joked in reply, earning a laugh from her in response.

"Which may be all the more reason why it is good that I am joining you," T'Challa interrupted, surprising the two a little. "If you will allow me, Sora, I can teach you how to become a better fighter. As I said, your current skills, while impressive, require a great deal of improvement, and I would consider it an honor to help one of the newest Keybearers to become a better warrior."

Sora was surprised by that offer, right to the point where he had barely registered that T'Challa was holding his hand out in hopes of sealing this deal with a handshake as well, but when it finally caught up with him, Sora could only grin as he accepted the offered hand and said, "The honor would be all mine, Your Highness."

Both Panther siblings laughed a little at Sora's reply, and while Tony was still scowling at T'Challa a little from behind the mask of his helmet, he was still able to come to the same silent conclusion as the rest of his team. Things at Avengers Mansion were going to get a lot more interesting with Black Panther now on board with them, and Sora was likely going to regret accepting that offer for training before he knew it. All the while, none of them suspected that the same person who had been watching Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Wasp all this time, and who helped Wasp keep Klaw distracted, was now staring down at the spiky haired boy in awe, hardly believing what she had just heard. The only thing that was more unbelievable to her was what she had seen the boy carrying a moment ago, but after she had gotten over her shock, she immediately grinned widely, and quietly commented, "Well, that makes it official. I've got to stick with these guys and the kid especially."

* * *

A few hours later, the Avengers had returned home with their newest member in a jet provided by T'Challa's people, and the moment that the jet had been raised up from the water in the hangar, they were all ready to just go right to bed and sleep off the excitement that they had just gone through for the next few days. That plan was quickly derailed when T'Challa looked to the back of the ship, pulled off his mask to show his smiling face, and said, "Doctor Pym, would you be so kind as to inform our stowaway that we have arrived, and perhaps help her to disembark from the jet in case she is still feeling woozy?"

"Huh," was the most intelligent reply that Hank had at that moment, but he still turned to the back of the plane and found the stowaway that T'Challa was talking about. A minute later, the rest of the Avengers were all watching as Hank guided the cloaked figure from the Vibranium mine down the boarding ramp and into the hangar, while said figured lightly groaned a bit as if they had an upset stomach. "I'm guessing you get a little airsick."

"Yeah, but it's a small price to pay for following through on what I had to do," the figure replied, and the sound of her voice definitely proved that this person was likely a young woman, probably just a little older than Sora. She then turned her attention to T'Challa and asked, "How'd you know I was back there, anyway?"

"Your airsickness gave you away before we had even left Wakandan airspace," Panther replied with an easy-going smile.

"Wait a minute. Back up. Do you know this person," Tony demanded.

"Yes. She appeared in Wakanda a few years ago. At first, we were not too eager to welcome her, but when she told us that her home had been lost my father felt that we could not turn her away. Ever since, she has not only been considered as one of the few outsiders to be welcome in Wakanda, but also as an honorary member of the Dora Milaje after she helped them to fend off a group of pirates that had invaded in the hopes of seizing the Vibranium," T'Challa explained with a smile.

"Wait, what exactly happened to your home," Janet asked.

"The same thing that I'm guessing had happened to the world of the chosen Keyblade Wielder over there. It was destroyed by the Heartless," the girl replied, her gaze clearly locking on to Sora when she mentioned a chosen Keyblade Wielder.

They were all shocked to hear that this person not only knew about the Heartless, but that she apparently knew about the Keyblade as well, or at least a little more beyond what the larger public knew. Still, the fact that she had so accurately guessed what had happened to Sora's world, and had called referenced the fact that he was from another world at all without a care in the world made them all wonder the very question that Sora eventually asked once he found his voice again. "Who are you?"

All remaining signs of motion sickness seemed to leave the girl after that, as she immediately straightened up, allowing everyone to see the smile on her face as she declared, "I'm glad you asked."

"Oh, here we go," T'Challa quietly groaned, indicated he had seen and heard whatever was about to happen next a few times before.

The girl then assumed what they could only assume she believed to be a dramatic pose, and began a little speech. "I am the champion of the earth and the sky. I am the conqueror of evil. The single white rose of Hollow Bastion…" At the moment that she paused, she finally cast off her cloak in a single, fluid motion, revealing herself to the Avengers in full at last, and allowing them to see a girl with a young face, short black hair, and wearing a black headband with white lining, an unzipped, dark grey combat vest over a navy blue tank top with white floral designs, dark shorts, a white wristband on her right arm, and a grey, fingerless glove on her left. "The great ninja Yuffie Kisaragi! Feast your eyes on…Whoa, whoa! OW!"

Part way through the last bit, Yuffie had ended up losing her footing as she tried to spin around in order to show off, and ended up banging her head against the deck railing of the hangar when she finally fell back, making each of the Avengers wince at the painful sight. Janet was the first to approach the girl, and immediately asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Trust me, I've taken worse hits," Yuffie reassured the size-changer while she rubbed the back of her head.

"Uh, is she always like this," Tony whispered to T'Challa.

"Unfortunately, yes for the most part, but it does prove rather entertaining from time to time," T'Challa replied, a tired smile slowly taking shape on his face.

"Hey! I heard that, Kitty-Cat," Yuffie retorted.

Sora and Steve could not suppress their amused snorts even if they had tried, but Tony made no effort to hide his amusement at all. "'Kitty-Cat,'" the Keybearer of the chuckling trio asked.

T'Challa merely groaned in reply before he said, "I thought I asked you to stop calling me that, Yuffie."

"And like I keep telling you, I'm gonna keep calling you that until you stop being a big old Kitty-Cat, or when you finally stop calling Shuri your baby sister," Yuffie easily replied, grinning all the while.

"I'm sorry, but is there a reason why you followed us here, Miss Kisaragi," Cap interrupted, finally asking the question that everyone was wondering.

"Well several reasons actually," Yuffie admitted, standing up straight once again. "First off, I overheard T'Challa say that he was going to help get the chosen one trained up a little more, and I figured, why settle for just one trainer when you can have two? I may not be Cloud Strife or Lightning Farron, but I do know a thing or two about martial arts that could come in handy for him. Second, I saw you guys fighting off the Wakandan army, those HYDRA goons, and even that freaky sound monster that Klaw turned into, and if I can just say one thing, you guys were incredible. I mean, sure, it's pretty obvious that some of you don't really know how to fight, but you've definitely got some sick moves and abilities that seem to make up for that…somewhat."

"Wait, you were spying on us," Tony asked, crossing his arms when he noticed how Yuffie looked at him when she mentioned some of them not knowing how to fight.

"Only because I was curious about the kind of backup that Kitty-Cat brought back with him when Shuri and I helped him get out of M'Baku's reach," Yuffie insisted. "Besides, I plan on going back home one day so that I can take back my world from the Heartless, and I know the rest of my friends are planning to do the same, wherever they are. Sure, I could probably go in with some new moves and abilities, but if I could possibly bring back some superhero backup, or at the very least, the Keyblade's chosen one, then all the better. Plus, you guys can't tell me you wouldn't mind having an extra hand or two catching all those bad guys that escaped from the supervillain prisons, can you?"

"So wait, are you saying you want to join us," Hank asked, incredulously.

"Mmm…Yep, that pretty much sums it up," Yuffie confirmed. "So, please?"

Everyone was silent for a moment, wondering whether or not it would be a good idea to include Yuffie on the team. Sure, she seemed competent enough, given what Wasp had said about the fighting abilities the ninja displayed in the Vibranium mine, and her stealth abilities had to be pretty good if she was able to keep out of most of their notice for so long now, but she was still really young, probably not much older than Sora. Including the Keybearer on their team had already left some of them feeling a little uneasy, so adding another kid to their line-up was not really something that sat well with many of them. Still, T'Challa seemed to indicate that she was more than able to handle herself since she had earned a place in Wakanda's Special Forces group, and if Yuffie was as skilled as she implied, she would likely be a big help in their future fights. All this made it really hard for the team to really decide one way or the other, at least for most of them.

"You're in," Sora agreed on behalf of the others, earning him surprised looks from his teammates. "What? Like we can really say no after all that she went through just to get here and ask? Besides, as cool as it is hanging out with all of you guys, it still wouldn't hurt to have teammates closer to my own age."

"Well, I guess that makes it official, right," Yuffie asked, grinning at the team in the hopes that they would say yes.

Iron Man glanced around for a minute, looking to see if anyone would object, and when he received none, he finally sighed and said, "Okay, sure. Welcome to the Avengers, Yuffie." That earned him a loud cheer from the ninja girl, who immediately hugged him in response as she said thank you several times over before dragging Sora off to the training room so that she could start showing him a few fighting techniques right away, and as they watched the two leave, Tony looked to the sky and muttered, "What did we just get ourselves into?"

* * *

 ** _AN: So as you have all probably noticed by now, quite a few things from the Black Panther movie found their way into this chapter, like T'Challa's sister, Shuri (who is sporting her battle attire from the movie, btw), a mention of Nakia, and of course, the Wakandan salute: Wakanda forever!_**

 ** _Black Panther &Shuri: Wakanda forever!_**

 ** _AN: Yeah, thank you, we got it. I had been planning on adding that into the chapter ever since I first saw it in the movie, and I automatically thought that it was just too cool to not add in. And stuff from that movie is not the only thing that made an appearance here. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for everyone's favorite ninja from Final Fantasy 7, Yuffie!_**

 ** _[audience applause]_**

 ** _Yeah, having Yuffie show up here serves a few different purposes. For one thing, it adds both another girl and someone closer to Sora's age to the Avengers, but also, I just felt that it was a little weird to just add in Sora to the Avengers' line-up and no one else from Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. Yes, Sora's still going to be a central figure in this story, as far as new additions to the team goes, but he's not going to be the only one there the entire time. At the moment though, Yuffie is the only Final Fantasy character that will be joining the Avengers, officially speaking, but don't worry, others will show up later on, including Tidus, Wakka, and a few other members of the Final Fantasy X crew as well, along with all the gang from Traverse Town. Just to be clear though, I made Yuffie at least a couple years older than Sora, so in this story, she's technically sixteen, and will be a junior when Tony gets her enrolled at Midtown._**

 ** _Yuffie: Aw, do I have to?_**

 ** _Sora: Hey, if I have to endure that torture, then yes! You do too!_**

 _ **AN: Not quite how I would have put it, but still correct all the same. Btw, did everyone catch that little flashback to the days of the BBS trio? Because yeah, I had to include it in here, if for no other reason than to finally give Terra a proper debut into this story. Plus, that little scene between the three is actually one of my favorites from BBS since it shows that those three had been really close for such a long time, and through thick and thin at that, while showing just how much Terra and Aqua care about Ventus, whether it be as a good friend or as a surrogate little brother. Sure, you could also say that it shows something that could be considered as beginnings for a romantic relationship between Aqua and Ven, but like I said before, that's not a thing in this story.**_

 _ **Ventus: Okay, we get it.**_

 _ **AN: Just making sure, man. Don't get all up in a huff about it. You've already got the girl in the Keyblades Unleashed series, so that means that you and Aqua are together in two of my stories while Terra's technically only paired up with her in one. Be happy for that if nothing else.**_

 _ **Anyways, yeah, T'Challa and Yuffie are going to teach Sora a bit more on how to fight, so he can better hone his hand-to-hand and sword fighting abilities. Someone mentioned that I could have something like that happen for Sora here since Doctor Strange is going to be teaching him magic, and I had to admit, it definitely makes sense that Sora would go with that. I mean come on, you can't really say that someone would avoid getting that kind of training if they're living under the same roof as two very experienced, well-trained fighters. Three if you count Cap. Well, unless you're Iron Man.**_

 _ **Iron Man: Not funny.**_

 _ **AN: Said the guy that Cap knocked down to the mat several times over before he could even blink. But more on that later, there's another chapter for people to prepare for, and they likely want to know what's coming next. So, why keep them from the hint? Onto the Preview!...**_

 ** _Coming out of another round of training with Yuffie and T'Challa, Sora finds himself and his new ninja friend whisked away to another world at last, and it's not like anything he's expecting. An entire city that had been submerged underwater for thousands of years, explorers from the surface that claim to be looking for it for scientific purposes, but may be hiding ill intentions, and magic crystals with incredible abilities are just a few things that the two will find. Just what other wonders can they uncover, and how can the Heartless even think of threatening a place that seems as peaceful as this submerged civilization? Well in the case of the latter question, quite easily, since Sora and Yuffie find themselves dealing with said monsters almost right from the moment that they arrive, and they'll meet a couple other familiar faces as well while they're here. Discover a lost empire and more, in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Well, that's a wrap on that for now. And yeah, we're going to another world at last! Hooray! Until then..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	7. The Lost Empire

_**AN: Wow, let me just say that I did not mean to take this long to update this story again, but things got really busy in my life IRL, and I had to update a bunch of other stories that were long overdue for an update (some more than others), but now at last, we're back again to adventures featuring heroes of the Keyblade, and in particular, the newest chapter of... Hearts of Avengers!**_

 _ **[audience applause]**_

 _ **Yeah, you know it's getting real, and that's without the fact that this is going to be the first world that explains how Sora's going to be getting to other worlds in this story, among other things as well, too. Now I know that you're all excited and eager to see what happens, but before we get into things, I'd like to take a moment to answer a few reviews, or at least whichever ones that I can without giving away any spoilers or really anything else like that.**_

 _ **Wasp: Um, I don't know how to tell you this, but I don't think you have too many recent reviews that you can really answer right now without giving away a spoiler.**_

 _ **AN: Maybe not that many, but there are still some questions that I can answer. First off, to those of you who guessed that the first world of this story will be from Atlantis the Lost Empire, I applaud you all, because you are correct!**_

 ** _[audience applause]_**

 ** _With that said, Namor will not be in this Atlantis. He's still got his own deep sea pad on the Avengers' world, the alternate name of which shall be revealed here today._**

 ** _Moving right along, in response to the person who asked for a sign on who Ven might end up with, romantically, "Dragon Rider 66", I can already say that no, she will not be appearing in any of Sora's dreams. Mainly because she actually hasn't been born yet, for lack of a better term. Here's another little hint: when she first came into being, it was in the same place that Ventus was hidden away in._**

 ** _Sora: Well that's not a dead give-away or anything._**

 ** _AN: Well I think that depends on how well everyone knows their Kingdom Hearts lore, and on how many folks can decipher the clues. Oh, and btw, I wouldn't expect anyone to call Yuffie out on being a character from a video game. Just because Disney exists in this universe as it's usual mega-franchise, doesn't mean that Final Fantasy does too, you know. But there will be something that seems similar to it all the same. I'm thinking of calling it the Last Illusion series in this story._**

 ** _Riku: Eh, I think it might need some work._**

 ** _AN: Well, it is still just one idea. Oh, and just a quick word to "Twisted Pixl", while I'm not opposed to doing a KH story that doesn't follow the Sora &Kairi pairing, it will most likely be a long time before I do end up writing such a story. It will most likely be even more of an AU than this one is, or the Keyblades Unleashed Series for that matter, but to be quite honest, they will still end up together by the end of the series that said story would be a part of, mainly because, come on, those two are the ultimate OTP for Kingdom Hearts, and I honestly can't really see them ending up with anyone else but each other without their being a solid reasoning behind it. (Said list of reasonings do not include Sora turning out to be gay though. Not that I have a problem with gay people, but I do have a problem with folks trying to make characters that way when they are most obviously not!)_**

 ** _Next up is to the guest reviewer, "Johnathen", who pitched an idea for another world which included He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Without-a-Hint-of-Disgust._**

 ** _Everyone other than AN: Huh?  
_**

 ** _AN: Deadpool._**

 ** _Everyone other than AN: Oh._**

 ** _Deadpool: Hey! I resent that! [suddenly gets punched out of the room by a Darkside Heartless]_**

 ** _AN: Do I look like I care? Anyway, back to what I was saying before, at the moment, aside from Star Wars and Final Fantasy, I'm not including any worlds that are not from Disney in this story, and more importantly, Deadpool is most definitely not going to show up in this story, because let's be honest, what kind of Kingdom Hearts story would have a guy like Deadpool in it?_**

 ** _Iron Man: Probably one that was rated M, or one that just him showing up in his video game if nothing else._**

 ** _AN:...Fair enough. I'll give you that. Next up is to the guest "HenryBarreto", who asked about Donald and Goofy's progress in their search for Sora. Well, you'll find out the answer to that soon enough, my friend._**

 ** _Our next review answer goes out to yet another guest reviewer by the name of "DarthRevan-B312", who actually posed quite the interesting theory._**

 ** _Hawkeye: Oh yeah, wasn't that the guy who asked if Nick Fury was going to turn out to be Mace Windu in this story or something?_**

 ** _AN: Yep, that's the one. Sorry to say that no, Fury will not be Mace Windu here. As cool as that idea would be, Fury's going to remain as simply Fury, and Mace Windu would really just be his doppelganger from another world, if nothing else. Besides, when would he really have time to teach Sora some stuff about the Keyblade when he's busy running all of SHIELD and later on, fighting a secret war with the Skrulls? Again, it is a great idea, but it's not one that I'm going to be using here, as tempting as it may be._**

 ** _Sora: Hey, I don't know if you noticed this last guest review from a "Guest" on 8/21/18, but it looks like he was proposing an idea for a story that features Xion, and asking for her opinion on it._**

 ** _AN: Well honestly, while I have heard of the series, I don't know enough about it to really do any kind of story with it in any shape or form, let alone one that adds in any specific characters. What're your thoughts, Xion?_**

 ** _Xion: As tempting as it would be for me to be a central character all on my own in one of your stories, crossover or not, I don't think you should go for it. I mean, if you don't know that much about the series, it would be a bad idea for you to try and write anything that happens in that series, wouldn't it?_**

 ** _AN: Pretty much, yeah. But you can't deny that you do like the idea of avoiding your canon fate in anyway possible, can you?_**

 ** _Xion: Um, duh! Why wouldn't I want to avoid that if at all possible? I mean, come on, I died and yet no one seems to remember me at all, even when I do show up before them._**

 ** _Roxas: I wouldn't say we don't remember at all. I mean, Riku seemed to have a little bit of recognition when he saw you in Dream Drop Distance, and Sora's shedding tears when he met you in that same game must mean that a part of him, probably the part of him that's me, does remember you a little._**

 ** _AN: Okay, we get it. What happened to Xion in canon sucked, and I do in fact like to change that fate whenever I get a chance. Let's move on now, please._**

 ** _Xion &Roxas: Yeah, all right._**

 ** _AN: So, now that we've covered everything here, let's not waste another minute and get right into the action! Avengers, to the chapter!..._**

 _ **I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter VII**

As far as most of the Avengers were concerned, the only real downside to adding Yuffie to the team was hearing how much she complained about having to be enrolled at Midtown. Yes, Sora did complain quite a bit, but Yuffie had him beat both in how much and how loudly. She did not even stop until after she had met Sora's friends from said school and formed a close friendship with both Anya and Gwen. It may have been a little strange that she was not making friends with any of her fellow Juniors, but seeing as Sora was the only one she actually knew on her first day, Yuffie could not help it if she formed friendships with people that were outside of said grade level. Aside from that, the ninja tended to spend a lot of time with Janet, normally just chatting things up and being their excited, preppy selves. It might have had something to do with the fact that they were the only two girls in the group, or it could have been their similar personalities, but no one could deny that a fast friendship had formed between them in a matter of days if not less time. None of them had heard anything about the press trying to give Yuffie a fancy codename yet like they had with Sora, but the Keyblade Samurai was confident that it was going to happen sooner or later.

Speaking of Sora, he did have a few more complaints about the two newest additions than everyone else, but most of that normally pertained to how his training sessions with them usually some him walking away with a few bruises, or with him feeling like every part of his body hurt too much to properly move. T'Challa and Yuffie were not overly harsh in their lessons, but given that they were well-trained, experienced fighters, they did have a hard time holding back in sparring matches. The things that Sora learned from them were helpful though, because it allowed him to not only refine his swordsmanship so that he was not just relying on the fighting style that he developed with Riku while they were growing up, but also to help him learn how to better fight without the Keyblade. Sora was not too worried about the idea of losing Kingdom Key or something, but after his encounter with Night Hunter, he knew that there was a chance of someone taking said Keyblade from him somehow, so it could not hurt to know a few extra fighting skills. Add in the fact that Tony had told him the next part of his partial armor was going to have a few offensive capabilities that should help him channel his magic with or without the Keyblade, and Sora was sure that he was going to be ready for anything the next time he crossed paths with Night Hunter.

When he told T'Challa and Yuffie that, they immediately shot that idea down before beating his next lesson into him. "No one is ever truly ready for anything or everything," T'Challa had said after landing a particularly hard spin kick into Sora's left side. "You can only be prepared for as much as possible in the coming moments."

Sora still did not understand what that meant. How was saying that you were prepared for anything that different from saying that you were ready for it? Yuffie had tried to explain it in some elaborate way, but it only gave Sora a big headache. In the end, she simplified it by saying that if you claimed to be ready for anything then you would lose all motivation to try and get better, which would leave you vulnerable and weak against the next big opponent, or words to that effect at least. That Sora could understand, and part of him had to wonder if that was why he always kept losing to Riku in their sparring matches back on the islands. He shook it off as just him reading a little too much into it though. After all, those were just friendly matches between friends, not bitter duals between mortal enemies.

It was actually after another day of training with the two that saw Sora entering the mansion's lounge from the secret elevator in the fireplace, and while T'Challa had gone to provide assistance in locating the Breakout escapees, Yuffie had followed him up to the lounge and happily plopped down on the couch next to him once he had collapsed in exhaustion. "You know, you're actually getting better a lot more quickly than anyone I've ever seen when they start doing this type of thing," the ninja complimented. "I guess the whole being self-taught thing has something to do with it though, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Sora groaned in pain, not really having it in him to say much more in reply. "Doesn't make it any less painful though."

Yuffie could only shrug in reply to that before she started her latest round of critiquing. "Well, you know what they say: no pain, no gain. Though you could stand to watch your footing a little better. If you had, you wouldn't have been open to that sweep kick that I scored on you when you thought you had me pinned down. And you're still leaving your left side open a little more than you should. That's how T'Challa was able to get at you so quickly. All he had to do was keep focusing on your left and then strike the minute that he had a chance, which was quite a bit."

"I know, I know," Sora groaned, having heard that particular bit of advice several times now. You would think that would serve as a sign that he should be trying a little harder to fix that, and Sora was trying to, but it was not really all that easy for him to adapt his fighting style to correct something like that. "And let's not forget my magic control…"

"I'm not, but the point of these lessons is to help you improve your regular fighting abilities, not the magic powers that make you all wizardly," Yuffie pointed out in a half-teasing tone of voice.

Sora had to give her a small smile in good humor for that one, but he still did not sit up from his current position on the sofa. "Feels like a rotten way to start the weekend."

"Are you kidding? This is a great way to start it," Yuffie cheered. "Nothing can get your blood pumping like a good bit of sparring! And better yet, it's two whole days where we don't have to go to that horrible torture chamber."

"Hey, I may not like it either, but school's not that bad, Yuffie," Sora protested. He did actually like going to Midtown, if for no other reason than to see his friends and to just relax and not be an Avenger for a little while. It gave him a sense of normalcy that he had not had since coming here, despite the fact that everyone at Midtown now knew for a fact that he was one of the Avengers. Of course, most people did not really make that big of a deal about it after the first week of his enrollment, so Sora had to figure that the hype had died down a bit.

"Says you," Yuffie childishly countered with a huff.

Sora was about to point out something in defense of their school life, namely regarding their friends Anya and Miles, but before he could, his Keyblade suddenly materialized into his hand out of nowhere, surprising both wielder and ninja. "What the," Sora gasped before he just turned to trying to dismiss the magic blade, only to be met with a very surprising twist. "Hey, what gives? Go away already! I'm not in a fight, there's no Heartless around, and I definitely don't need to do anything that I normally call you out for Kingdom Key."

"Sora, I know for a fact that it isn't this bad, so quit kidding around," Yuffie stated, thinking that he was just trying to play a prank on her.

"I'm not! It's really not going away," Sora insisted as he tried waving the Keyblade around. He would have thrown it or even just put it down somewhere, but for some reason, he could not bring himself to release his grasp on the handle. It was almost like something had glued his fingers to the Keyblade or something. A moment later, the tip of the Keyblade suddenly started to glow a little, and as said light began to swirl around the tip in a sphere, it soon steadily grew brighter and brighter, until reaching a point where Sora and Yuffie both had to shield their eyes lest they risk getting blinded. Eventually, they heard a soft ring of some kind, and before they knew it, they felt as though something had pulled them up off of the sofa and into the air at great speeds, while the light surrounding them simply flashed brightly once more and then vanished with them along with it.

Just seconds after the light had died down, Hank walked into the room, having heard their voices from the lounge, and said, "Hey, if you two are done with your training for the day, I'd be happy to help with whatever homework you might…" Ant-Man stopped short when he saw that the room was completely empty with not a soul in sight. His brow furrowed immediately after this, since he was so sure that he had heard the two youngest Avengers in here, and he called out, "Sora? Yuffie? …Hmm. That's odd. I could've sworn they were in here. JARVIS, can you tell me where they are?"

 _"Apologies Doctor Pym. Master Hart and Miss Kisaragi are not currently in the mansion,"_ the AI butler reported.

"Guess they went out to meet up with their friends or something," Hank muttered to himself. He then thanked JARVIS for his help and then turned to go back to his lab. He still had some experiments to run, and with any luck, he'd be able to get to a good stopping point before the two got back from wherever they went. Needless to say, Hank was one of those people who thought it was better to get homework done right away so that one could better enjoy the time off that the weekend provided.

* * *

When the light from the Keyblade had finally died down, Sora could feel that it had returned to normal, and immediately dismissed the magical weapon with a sigh. "Well, that was weird," the kid commented. "Maybe I should have another talk with Thor and see if he knows anything about why the Keyblade would start doing something like that."

"Uh…I think that might be a little hard at the moment," Yuffie told him, and Sora was immediately thrown for a loop at how nervous she sounded. Turning to Yuffie, Sora was about to ask why she thought that, but he quickly discovered that reason on his own.

The familiar, welcoming walls of Avengers Mansion had all disappeared, and in their place, they found a great deal of darkness, rock walls, and faint sounds of water slowly dripping down into a nearby lake or puddle. After their eyes had adjusted to the dark a little better, they could also see that there looked to be some broken machinery a few feet away from them, and from what they could tell, it was not anything like what they typically saw at the mansion, or anywhere else in New York. It all looked several years old, like something that belonged in the era of when steam power was one of the more efficient methods of powering larger devices. The cave walls also extended upwards for a great distance, right to the point where they could not even see where the ceiling was. Any other details were lost to Sora at the moment, because he was more concerned with how they had gotten here and wherever here was.

"Yuffie…What just happened," Sora finally asked.

"You tell me! You're the one who zapped us here," Yuffie quickly cried out in reply, sounding a little more panicked than Sora was used to hearing her.

"I didn't do anything! In case you hadn't noticed, the Keyblade went crazy with a sudden appearance and light show, and then we found ourselves here," Sora snapped in retort. After he said that, he had to pause and think for a minute, barely noticing how Yuffie was on the verge of pacing back and forth in worry, before he finally came up with an idea that might have been a little crazy to some people, but made a bit of sense in his mind. "Do you think that…the Keyblade might have transported us to another world?"

That got Yuffie's attention, or at least enough of it to get her to calm down and think a little more clearly. "Maybe," Yuffie admitted in a thoughtful tone. "I mean, there are all kinds of legends talking about Keyblade wielders traveling to other worlds to keep peace between them, but I always figured that they had some kind of crazy ship or something. Then again, considering that they all have access to incredible magic, I guess it wouldn't be too far-fetched to think that the Keyblade would allow one to reach other worlds. But why would your Keyblade suddenly zap us to another world now of all times, and how are we gonna get back again?"

"I really hope you're not asking me, because I didn't even know I could teleport to other worlds like this with the Keyblade until now," Sora pointed out. Still, he re-summoned his Keyblade, thinking that it could not be too hard to get back, and held it out in front of him. "Back to Avengers Mansion!" The two waited for a few minutes, only for nothing to happen. Not even a little twinkle of light appeared on the Keyblade aside from how the metal shimmered in the little amount of light that the cave possessed. "Uh…Go to New York," Sora tried again, but there was still no reaction. "Come on, Kingdom Key. Work with me here, and take us back!"

"Sora, if it were that easy, I think you would've been able to get to other worlds a long time ago before now. Maybe you need to picture nothing else but where you want to go in your mind," Yuffie offered.

Sora was not sure how that would make a difference, but it was not like they had anything to lose right now. With that said, he took a deep breath to help make himself as calm as possible, held the Keyblade in front of him, and made sure that the only thing on his mind was the mansion. He allowed himself to think of the people who lived there as well, just in case it had a chance of helping to direct the teleportation, but no matter how hard he focused on all of that, there was still no reaction at all. After a few more different ideas and attempts fell flat, Sora was ready to give up, and prepared to dismiss the Keyblade when they suddenly heard voices coming from nearby. Both Keyblade wielder and ninja froze a little when the voices suddenly mixed with what sounded like a fight, and a minute later, they started to scramble away when something suddenly got blasted towards them.

Only Yuffie was able to get clear in time, but Sora ended up at the bottom of a sudden dog-pile when two strangely shaped figures dropped down on top of him. They both figured that it was not too much of a stretch to think that these new arrivals were the people they heard talking earlier, but what they did not expect was for the two individuals to suddenly look towards the Keyblade still in Sora's hand, and excitedly cheer as one, "The Key!"

"Urgh…Hey, could you two get off me, please," Sora moaned, alerting the new arrivals to their presence.

Said individuals quickly scrambled off of him, while the taller of the two said, "Sorry about that, but we got ambushed by those Heartless guys. I guess that last spell you used was a bit more powerful than you thought, Donald."

"Ah what do you know, ya big palooka," the other one retorted in an odd, garbled kind of voice that Yuffie and Sora almost did not understand.

"Hmm. What do I know," the tall one mused aloud, apparently not aware that he had been asked a rhetorical question. "Well…I know that a bunch of stars have been going out lately, that the king left to go and find a way to stop it all by himself, that he asked us to go and find the key, and that we needed to do what we could to help the worlds from disappearing. So I guess I know a lot of stuff."

"Wait, a king asked you to…Are you guys the ones that King Mickey had sent to find me and the Keyblade," Sora asked immediately after he heard that.

"Yup, that's us," the taller of the two said, and they immediately stepped forward a little, allowing Sora and Yuffie to get a better look at them. Not that it was by that much, seeing as the cave was still so dark.

"Hang on a minute. I'm not spending another minute talking to shadows," Yuffie informed them, and she then reached into the bag on her belt to produce a small glow stick, which she immediately cracked to life, granting a little more illumination to their surroundings. The minute the ninja had, both she and Sora turned to face their two new acquaintances, and quickly recognized both of them. That did not mean that they did not let them introduce themselves, though.

"Wow, thanks for that, Miss. Anyways, my name's Goofy, and this here's one of my best friends, Donald Duck," Goofy informed them, and true to their nature, they both looked almost exactly like they did in all of their appearances in various Disney cartoons and other media, save for their attire.

While Donald retained his usual sailor-like attire, it was much more elaborate and contained several different zippers and pockets that were no doubt loaded with supplies necessary for traveling on a long adventure. Goofy on the other hand, sported an outfit that was almost entirely different from his usual get-up, save for the way it was styled. He still had his iconic white gloves, his pants still appeared to be rather baggy, his shoes appeared to be long and floppy, and his hat was the same shape as always, but he also sported a green sweater underneath a black vest with extra pockets, while his pants and hat were both a light tan color. In addition to that, he also had a pair of goggles strapped around the brim of his hat for some odd reason, and his shoes appeared to have steel-tipped toes. In short, they looked like they were both set for a grand adventure that would go across many different worlds if necessary.

"So who're you two," Donald asked.

Before either of the two Avengers could reply, they heard someone groaning from nearby, and they looked to see several bodies slowly moving in the dark, like they were just waking up or had suffered from a hard fall. Realizing that there might be some people in need of their help, they put all other formalities on hold for the moment, and raced over to provide whatever assistance that they could, with Donald conjuring a quick light spell that would illuminate their surroundings a little better than Yuffie's glow stick. Working together made digging the people out a little easier, but there was still a great of work involved. If it were not for a good deal of Donald's magic spells, they probably would have been at it a lot longer. Plus they were soon receiving help from some of the people that they helped as well, so that was a bonus. Once enough people were freed though, someone was quick to turn on a headlight from a destroyed vehicle, and made any further use of Donald's light spell as merely an added bonus. All the same, he still extinguished the light from his staff, saying that he needed to keep his reserves of magic energy up in case he needed to use any spells for a battle later on.

With their rescue work done, someone from the strange group quickly came over to speak with the four, and from his stance and large build, they all quickly assumed that he had to be the leader. "Thank you for your assistance in helping my people out from the wreckage of what's left of our camp," the tall man with graying hair stated. He then looked over the four for a minute, studying them with an analytical eye before he finally said, "Though if you don't my asking, just who are you all? Are you…Atlanteans?"

Sora, Yuffie, Donald, and Goofy all exchanged confused looks with one another, not entirely understanding how he could have come to that conclusion, before the Keybearer finally started to give an answer. "No, we're actually from…"

"Very far away! We're adventurers searching for our friends and something very important," Donald interrupted.

The gray haired man just looked at Donald for a minute, along with anyone in his group that was close by, before they finally asked, "What?"

"He said that we're adventurers from very far away, and we came here to find our friends and the key," Goofy repeated, changing the last bit of Donald's sentence, knowing that they were asking due to being unable to understand all of what his friend said.

"Goofy," Donald snapped.

"Oops!"

"What key," the gray haired man asked.

"I think he means my Keyblade," Sora explained, summoning the weapon for all to see.

The gray haired man stared in awe at the weapon, mostly due to the fact that Sora had just made it appear out of thin air, while Donald smacked his forehead in tired disbelief with a sigh, until the leader shook off his stupor and asked, "Are you sure you're not Atlanteans, because I've never seen anything like that before."

"We're not. Like Donald said, we're from very far away, and we got a little…turned around in our travels," Yuffie explained.

"'A little turned around,' she says," a young girl that looked only a little older than Yuffie remarked in playful sarcasm. "That's probably putting it a little mildly considering what it took for us to get here."

"Well either way, we'd be happy to provide you with whatever assistance we can," the leader said. "My name is Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke. I'm leading this band of explorers from the surface world on a mission to find the lost city of Atlantis, which sank beneath the sea ten thousand years ago. The young woman over there is Audrey Ramirez, our chief engineer." He then moved on to indicate the rest of his crew, or at least the most notable members that were in the area at that moment. "That's our demolitions expert, Vinny Santorini, our medical chief Doctor Joshua Sweet, our cook, Jebidiah 'Cookie' Farnsworth, and…" He paused for a moment when he came around to a stout man that looked like he had not bathed in a very long time and was now digging around while studying samples of the dirt with an ecstatic smile before he finally finished, "That's Mole."

"What does he do," Goofy asked, watching as Mole continued to study dirt samples.

"Well, he mostly does that, and just about all of our digging," Rourke replied.

"Nice to meet you all. I'm Sora, and this is Yuffie, Donald, and Goofy," the Keyblade wielder replied. "So why are you looking for this Atlantis anyway?"

"Let's just say it's something of some old, unfinished business. We were part of a team that discovered and brought back the journal that would be the key to finding the city and retrieving something called the Heart of Atlantis so we could bring back to the surface, but our original Atlantean expert, sadly, passed away before we could press on with an expedition to find the city that had been sunk beneath the sea so many centuries ago. Thankfully, his grandson, Milo Thatch holds the same interest as his grandfather, and has so far proved to be a very suitable replacement," Rourke explained. With introductions and explanations done, he turned to his crew and started asking the obvious questions. "How do things look, Audrey?"

"Not as bad as it could've been. We totaled rigs two and seven, but the digger still looks like it'll still run. Lucky for us we landed in something soft," the young woman replied with a sad sounding sigh after looking over one of the vehicles with a flashlight.

"This is ash. We are standing in the base of a dormant volcano," Mole finally reported to them with a grin that was a little less excited than before.

With that said, Rourke finally grabbed a flare pistol so that he could help them figure out how high the ceiling extended, and fired a single shot above them. "It just keeps going," Rourke noted.

"Maybe that's our ticket out of here," the mustached man with a bowl cut that Rourke identified as Vinny shrugged. Only a second later, they heard a faint boom as the flare finally hit the roof of the cave. "Or maybe not."

"The magma has solidified in the bowels of the volcano, effectively blocking the exit," Mole explained.

"Hold on. Back up," the tall, bald Native American doctor named Sweet suddenly said. "Are you saying this whole volcano can blow at any time?"

"No, no, no, no! That would take an explosive force of great magnitude," Mole scoffed with a wave of his hand.

At the sound of a spring, everyone turned to see Vinny working on a clock that was tapped to some dynamite, and they all leveled him with a look. When he noticed this, Vinny immediately paused in his work, turned a little sheepish, and said, "Maybe I should do this later, huh?"

"Ya think," Donald asked, sarcastically.

"And maybe you should try to stay calm while we're in here, Donald. After all, your temper can be pretty explosive," Goofy joked with a chuckle.

"I'll show you an explosive temper," Donald snapped in retort before he started chasing after his friend in a furious rage, while Goofy just scrambled to get away.

"More like you'll prove his point," Yuffie whispered to Sora with an amused smile, earning a barely repressed chuckle from the boy in response.

While he was mildly entertained by the impromptu show, Rourke was more focused on the situation that his crew and their strange new friends were caught in the middle of, and it showed with how he was studying the roof of the dormant volcano. "If we could blow the top off of that thing, we'd have a straight shot to the surface," the commander theorized, before glancing off to the side. "Mister Thatch, what do you think?" When he only received silence as his answer, he quickly became a little more concerned. "Mister Thatch? Thatch?"

"What's the matter," Donald asked.

"We must've lost Milo some time during the fall," Audrey explained as she started turning flashlight at their surroundings in an attempt to locate their friend. The others were soon following her example, only to have no luck in locating the person in question.

"Don't worry. We'll go and find him. You just worry about getting together whatever else you need for getting out of this place," Yuffie promised. A minute later, she tossed a smoke bomb at the ground, making Sora, Donald, and Goofy cough up a storm from said smoke, while the others lost all sight of her, and when the smoke cleared, they all saw that Yuffie had disappeared completely.

"Where did she…" Sweet started to ask, only for Sora to interrupt before he could finish.

"Yeah, she does that a lot, especially when she's in a hurry or something. It gets a little annoying after a while," Sora sighed, having lost count of the number of times that Yuffie had done that once school had let out for the day. He was honestly a little surprised no one at Midtown had gotten on Yuffie for that stunt, and that she had not yet set off any fire alarms or anything doing it. He put it aside for now though, and stated, "She is right though. We'll find your friend, Milo, so you can worry about getting out of here."

"All right. If you're sure about that," Rourke shrugged, not seeming to really care too much one way or the other. "He'll be a skinny fellow with large, round glasses."

"Skinny guy with round glasses. Got it," Sora repeated with a nod, and he then grabbed Donald and Goofy, ending their little run-around game so that they could go after Yuffie and track down the missing explorer, never once noticing how Rourke was staring after them with a suspicious, critical eye.

* * *

"Okay, so maybe I should've waited for them to tell me what the guy looks like before I pulled a smoke-bomb exit," Yuffie sheepishly admitted to herself barely more than a few minutes into her hunt for the missing explorer. She would have gone back and asked them, but that would have been a little embarrassing for her, and she only had so many smoke bombs on her person. She did intend to save as many of them as possible for when she actually did need them. Besides, from what she could tell, those people were the only ones down here, and from the sound of things, they had fallen from somewhere really high up. How hard could it be to find one guy who was likely recovering from any injuries sustained in a fall?

Thankfully, it was going to get a little easier, because a few seconds later, Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrived with an explanation on what Milo looked like, and they were soon setting out to search again. As they were looking Sora took the chance to finally ask Donald about what the duck had did earlier. "Why'd you stop me from telling those guys we were from another world?"

"Because while we can't tell anyone about that while we're in another world," Donald explained as simply as possible.

"Yep. Doing otherwise is against the rules, just like the fact that we can't interfere with things that happen in other worlds either, or we'd be muddling," Goofy added on.

"Meddling," Donald corrected.

"Yeah, that," Goofy nodded in reply. "It's all part of how we need to protect the world border."

"Order," Donald corrected once again, this time with a small sigh.

Sora did remember Fury mentioning something like that to him when he first arrived on Earth, but he did not think it was that big of a deal, especially since Thor already knew about all of that and the rest of the Avengers knew about it now, too. He would have brought that up, but he figured that it could wait for the moment, because there was something more important that was on his mind right now. "So have you two been here this whole time, because I was told that you should've been on Earth a while back," Sora questioned.

"Earth," Donald and Goofy both questioned with confused looks. Eventually, Goofy seemed to realize what Sora meant and said, "Oh, you must mean Midgard, otherwise known as Marvin…Marble…What was the rest of that other name again?"

"Marvel-topia," Donald finished for his friend.

"Yeah, that's it," Goofy mentioned before he went on to answer Sora's question. "Well the truth is, we were heading there, but unfortunately, we had a small problem with the ship and all of our data that mapped out where all the worlds are was deleted, which might've been my fault."

"It _was_ your fault," Donald insisted. "When are you going to learn to tie your shoes and not trip over your own, two big feet?"

"But…I don't have any shoelaces. Do I," Goofy asked as he looked down at his shoes, as if to check and be sure of that.

"Anyways, we've been going from world to world ever since destroying the Heartless and finding backup map data that the king had hidden away on some of the worlds that he's visited before. Once we find enough map pieces, we would've been able to chart a course to Marvel-topia without any problems, but we didn't expect you to find us before we ever got there," Donald finished for Goofy, while his friend continued looking for any signs of shoelaces on his shoes.

"So why wasn't the backup on the ship," Yuffie asked. Donald and Goofy both just shrugged in reply, honestly not knowing why that was, and while it was exasperating, Yuffie figured it was better just to not question them on it. "Well, now that you've found him, what's your plan?"

"To get Sora to come with us and help us find the king of course by going to other worlds on our vessel," Goofy explained, obviously not seeing any problem with the idea. Sora had to disappoint him though.

"But I can't. I've got to find a way back to Earth…I mean, Midgard, or Marvel-topia, or whatever you want to call it. The Heartless are a huge problem there, and that's without the fact that I haven't found its Keyhole yet. Plus, there's also the fact that Yuffie and I are in the middle of helping our friends and teammates track down a huge number of escaped supervillains," Sora explained.

"Wait, you're on a team that's fighting supervillains," Donald asked, clearly seeing that as a violation of not interfering in the affairs of another world.

"Hey, I had literally just appeared there after getting the Keyblade a few seconds before that. I didn't know everything that was involved with the thing," Sora explained.

"He still doesn't, for that matter. Otherwise his magic would probably be a lot better by now," Yuffie added on, taking a chance to tease Sora a little bit.

Apparently Sora did not find said teasing too funny, because he quickly leveled her with a flat look, which was soon turning a little heated after he heard what Donald said next. "That doesn't matter! The king needs us, and so do the rest of all the worlds in existence. You can't just ignore that responsibility for the sake of one single world."

"I'm not ignoring it, but I made a promise to help the Avengers save their world, and they're helping me try to find my best friends. You can't expect me to just forget about that, or Riku and Kairi for that matter," Sora argued angrily.

"Maybe we should just table all of this for now, seeing as we've still got a missing person to find," Yuffie offered, opting to play peacemaker when she realized how heated and tense this was starting to get.

Sora and Donald just glared at each other for a few more minutes before they finally turned away from one another and huffed, "Fine!"

Yuffie and Gooffy both cast worried looks after their two friends, but the reasons for their concerns was almost wildly different. In Yuffie's case, she was concerned that not only were they off to a poor start with the friends that King Mickey had sent to help Sora, but that said friends might actually find a way to get Sora to leave with them, and like the rest of the Avengers, Yuffie had grown rather attached to the young boy. Besides that, they did still need Sora's help, be it for stopping the supervillains, or for any of their own purposes or those of Midgard's. Either way, she and the rest of the Avengers would be extremely sad to see him go if he did leave with these two. While Goofy was thinking the same thing about his and Donald's start with Sora, he was more worried about the chances of Sora not coming with them. King Mickey's orders had been to stick with Sora and the Keyblade no matter what, but they would not be able to go and look for Mickey if they were always staying on just one world the whole time, so how could they keep looking for both him and whatever the king was looking for and let Sora stay on Marvel-topia with his new friends. Sure, letting him do so was probably violating the rules about not meddling in the affairs of other worlds, but in Goofy's opinion, said rule tended to be rather flexible at times, at least from his own experiences of traveling to other worlds with his friends. He just wished he knew what to do here, or that Mickey was here right now since he would likely know what to do in this instance. After all, Mickey always seemed to know the answers to a problem.

They were eventually distracted from any other worries when Yuffie spotted something moving through the shadows rather quickly. She could not quite tell what it was, but it definitely did not look like Heartless or animals. When they did not come near her or the rest of the group, Yuffie was willing to write it off as nothing, until she spotted the very man they were looking for chasing after them, shouting for them to wait. She quickly brought this to the other three's attention, and they were all soon chasing after Milo and whoever it was he was chasing, not quite knowing where they were heading exactly aside from the fact that it was likely further away from the rest of the explorer team. Sora was tempted to call out to Milo and let him know that they were there, but one look from Yuffie was all he needed to realize why that was not a good idea right now. If those people that Milo was chasing were not friendly, they would likely end up with even more trouble than they already had, and that was the last thing they needed right now, so they settled for continuing to silently chase after Milo.

The chase did not stay silent for long, as they soon felt the ground beneath them shake before they saw a massive drill rumbling past them and tunneling its way out of the cavern in the same direction that Milo was heading. Looking over the massive machine, they figured that it had to be the digger that they heard Audrey talking about earlier, but they were not entirely sure if the person driving knew that Milo was a few feet ahead of them, so they quickly redoubled their pace. It was easy for Yuffie to do so, having had to move faster than others on numerous occasions before, but Donald and Goofy had a harder time keeping up, and Sora did not have enough room to effectively fly his Keyblade Glider through the place. That did not stop the three though, because they were quickening their pace as much as they could, and did not slow down for anything. Eventually, they started to catch a glimpse of light, and saw Milo standing a few feet away from the mouth of a cave exit. When they passed through, they barely even registered the drill making the exit a lot bigger, because, like Milo and the rest of the explorers who had soon joined them, they were struck speechless at the amazing sight before them.

There, rising high above all of their heads, was a city that rested atop a massive island of water that cascaded down to somewhere below them, and from what they could see, there was not anything supporting the water beneath the city. Even more exciting was how the city glimmered brightly and shone with light, despite the fact that it was so far below ground, and underwater, if what Rourke had said was anything to go by, almost like natural daylight was shining through from the surface, despite the fact that there was no clear source of light as far as the eye could see. Sure, they could not really see too much of the city from where they were, but they could still see enough of it to know that it was both very old and _very_ impressive even from this distance. There was no telling how it could look up close, but for the moment, they were all happy to just look on from where they were.

"Whoa," Sora and Yuffie both breathed in awe.

"Great mother of Jefferson Davis," Cookie exclaimed.

"It's beautiful," Audrey half whispered.

After another moment or two, Donald's smile because a little more subdued as he commented, "I wish Uncle Scrooge and the boys were here to see this. They would love it."

"Yep, they sure would, and I'll bet Maxie would like it too," Goofy nodded in agreement.

With all of this being said, Sweet felt it only right that they give praise to the one who lead them here, and gave the young linguist/cartographer of their band a pat on the back as he said, "Milo, I gotta hand it to you. You really came through." A moment later, they all heard an odd sound from behind them, and they quickly spun around just in time to see some strange people in odd, tribal-like clothing and large masks that covered nearly their entire bodies, save for their arms and legs jumping down towards them, and pointing long, hooked spears at them. "Well I take that back," Sweet immediately stated as the strange hunters slowly approached them, while nearly everyone else dropped into a ready position just in case they were attacked by the strangers.

"Holy cats, who're these guys," Rourke breathed in question.

"They've gotta be Atlanteans," Milo excitedly exclaimed.

"Is that even possible," Yuffie questioned. Sure, she had heard of some strange things, but considering what they had heard about Atlantis, she did not really see how anyone could still be living there.

"You'd be surprised by what is or isn't possible," Donald informed the ninja, his mind already going back to the numerous adventures both he and his nephews had shared with his rich uncle.

A minute later, the supposed Atlanteans ended up not being the most shocking thing that they had seen though, because materializing from right behind the hunters before attacking, were several, shadowy creatures with beady, glowing eyes, some of which even having armor like that of a knight's that four individuals of the group knew quite well. "Any explanations for that, Mister Thatch," Rourke asked.

"Uh…not really," Milo admitted, but thankfully, Sora's group did have a simple explanation to answer Rourke's question.

"Heartless," Sora, Yuffie, Donald, and Goofy all shouted, and a minute later, everyone watched as the four summoned their respective weapons into their hands.

"Leave these guys to us! You all get to cover, and don't let the Heartless so much as touch you," Sora shouted as he slashed through a couple of Shadows right off the bat, while Yuffie tossed her large shuriken through a few Soldiers, Goofy bashed one or two with his shield, and Donald batted a few away with his staff before calling down a blast of lightning.

No one argued with the Keybearer, as both the explorers and the strange hunters quickly took cover wherever they could while watching the incredible, though somewhat terrifying spectacle before them. While Sora had the easiest time with destroying Heartless, Yuffie was proving to be no slouch in that department either, as she was easily making quick work of the dark monsters, be it with a few swings or throws of her shuriken, both the regular variety and her own giant one, or through some flashy display of martial arts that she had learned over the years. It probably should not have been too surprising though; Yuffie had admitted that her home was overrun by the Heartless, and it made sense that she would know quite a few different ways to fight against and destroy them without the need of a Keyblade, but it was still impressive to anyone who really knew just how dangerous said creatures were. She probably would be doing even better too, if she was not so busy watching how Sora fought against them and taking any chance she could to critique him.

"Keep an eye on your surroundings, Sora! Those things are able to come from literally any direction," Yuffie shouted when she saw a Shadow nearly catch the kid off guard after it popped up from the ground behind him. "And watch your footing! That last Soldier could've easily tripped you up. And don't forget to…"

"Guard my left! I know! How about you just focus on the actual fight, and a little less on me," Sora finally shouted when he had finally had enough. Ironically, he ended up leaving his left side open when he did shout this at Yuffie, and a Soldier managed to land a solid kick to that side moments later, knocking him off his feet.

Any follow-up attacks against Sora were quickly averted thanks to a timely rescue from Donald, intercepting the next blow with his staff, and the duck let out a loud warble as he unleashed a flurry of fire, ice, and lightning spells left and right, decimating any Heartless that dared tried to get too close to Sora. The Keybearer immediately gave Donald a nod of thanks, before he had to push him out of the way of a fire blast that came from a Heartless he had not seen before. This one looking like a small wizard or witch, with the conical hat and everything, and when Donald turned some of his spells on it, the magic seemed to either bounce right off or just simply power the little wizard up somehow. The most notable being when Donald tried hitting it with a lightning blast, and the Heartless just became encased in a sphere of lightning while it began raining down some of its own lightning bolts in retaliation, several of which ended up striking Donald on his tail.

"Hey, what's going on," Donald snapped after he got zapped one last time.

"Wizards are magic-proof! You can't so much as hurt them with a spell. It has to be a physical attack," Yuffie explained before she tossed her large shuriken at the Wizard to prove her point. Said point was well-proven when the large throwing star ended up striking true and disintegrated the Wizard right before everyone's eyes, and when Sora spotted another one materialize behind Yuffie, he immediately sprang forward and slashed through it with his Keyblade, earning the same results.

Goofy was the next to follow that lead, and from what Sora and Yuffie could see, despite how he was usually depicted in most of the Disney cartoons, he was actually a very capable fighter. Sure, he did not quite possess the same level of finesse, but the way Goofy fought against the Heartless almost reminded the two Avengers of Captain America's fighting style in some small way. Then again, maybe that had something to do with the fact that they both used a shield in their respective fighting styles. Even so, it was clear that Goofy tended to lean towards a more defensive fighting style than an offensive one, given how he tended prioritize shielding others and counterattack over actually going after the bad guys, but considering how well it was working for him, no one was complaining. Either way, the Heartless were quickly cleared out with little trouble, and none of the four were even a little out of breath afterwards.

"Not bad," Yuffie praised the two cartoon characters.

"Likewise," Donald nodded in reply, being unable to find any way to say that she and Sora did not know what they were doing in fighting the Heartless. He may not be too fond of the idea that they would rather stay on Marvel-topia than help him and Goofy find King Mickey, but he was not going to let that keep him from giving credit where it was due.

"So…That happened," was all that Sweet could say, reminding the four that there were still others in the area, and like that, all attention was turned onto the strangely dressed individuals that had appeared just seconds before the Heartless.

"So these guys are on our side, right," Sora questioned, keeping his Keyblade ready just in case he was guessing wrong.

No one answered the Keybearer right away, though the supposed Atlanteans did seem to be staring at Sora rather intently for a few minutes before one of them finally spoke up. The only problem was that none of them really knew what the heck she was saying, or at least most of them did not. Milo did not seem to have that problem, and slowly took it upon himself to reply, speaking the same odd language as the woman. After hearing Milo speak, the girl removed the large mask hiding most of her from view, and revealed a young, very attractive looking woman beneath it with long white hair, blue eyes, and dressed in simple, tribal-like clothing. The most notable thing that Yuffie and Sora could see about her clothing was the glowing crystal that she wore around her neck as a necklace, as they could somehow feel an odd power coming off of it. Donald and Goofy must have felt the same thing, because they seemed to be staring at the necklace rather intently. Either that or they were just staring at the girl wearing it, which was understandable given that she was quite pretty.

The exchange between Milo and the mystery woman continued on for a moment, with the woman holding a questioning gaze on Milo the entire time, while he slowly worked his way into speaking her language more and more easily, almost as though it were his own. It may have been a bit halting, and maybe a little broken from someone who spoke the language naturally, but it was clearly enough to impress the girl, if her expression and posture's slow change indicated as the conversation went on. By the end of it, she was smiling rather brightly, and actually allowed a little French to slip in, much to their surprise, and Mole's excitement as he stepped up to whisper something to her. Sora and Yuffie were not sure what the little man had said, but apparently, it was not something to the woman's liking, because she immediately socked him in the face a minute later.

"Ooh! I like her," Sweet applauded happily, while the rest of his group just smiled in satisfaction.

"Hm, 'Bout time someone hit him. I'm just sorry it wasn't me," Audrey admitted with a grin, proving what Sora and the other three suspected about the explorers' opinion of Mole, if not all the time, than certainly a good deal of it.

Just a moment afterwards, the rest of the hunters were all removing their masks, revealing themselves to be men and women that were similar in appearance to their leader, including the fact that they all wore the same crystals around their necks, and were granting the four off-worlders and their explorer acquaintances with a variety of welcoming greeting, all in different languages, surprising everyone who was not an Atlantean. "Okay, how do they know so many languages," Yuffie asked, once she was certain she heard someone speak Japanese.

"Their language must be based on a route dialect. It's just like the Tower of Babel," Milo theorized.

"Well maybe English is in there somewhere," Rourke finished for him before moving to stand at the forefront of the group, though pushing Milo aside a little when he did, much to the latter's annoyance. "We are explorers from the surface world. We come in peace."

Sora's group then found the Atlanteans' attention on them, indicating that they somehow realized that they were not part of Rourke's group, and the spiky-haired teen then said, "And we're just a group of adventurers who got a little turned around in our own travels. We come in peace too, by the way."

"Welcome to the city of Atlantis," the lead woman smiled in reply and with a bit of pride. She then grabbed both Milo and Sora by their arms and said, "Come. You must speak with my father now."

No one was going to argue with her, and while Rourke ordered some of his other men to go back to the crash site and salvage whatever they could, the rest of the group all followed after Milo, Sora, and their impromptu guide into Atlantis. It was at this point that Milo finally turned to Sora and asked, "So…who are you guys anyway? I don't remember seeing any of you on the sub when we set out on this expedition."

"It's…kind of a long story," Sora shrugged once he managed to get his arm free again and just follow along at a casual pace.

* * *

By the time Milo had been brought up to speed on the abbreviated, edited version of the four off-worlders' story, the group had all arrived just outside the palace. Of course, the woman only allowed Milo, Rourke, and Sora's group to enter with her and from the looks that the guards were giving them, not everyone in Atlantis was as welcoming to outsiders as she was. This might have been a point that the woman was discussing with the king, because the conversation that they were sharing in Atlantean did not really seem too agreeable. Not that they could really tell what was being said, but it was clear from their tones and the expression on the king's face it was more of an argument than a conversation, and one that they must have had a few times before now, considering that they both sounded rather tired as they went further into the matter. The group of outsiders just wished that they knew what the two were actually saying, or at least most of them did, considering that Milo seemed to have caught a good majority of it.

"Uh…Did ya get any of that," Goofy finally whispered to Donald when the conversation between the two ended.

"No," Donald simply replied, almost rolling his eyes as if to show a reminder that he did not speak Atlantean.

After that point, Rourke took it upon himself to try and explain his team's reasons for being in Atlantis, but clearly, the king was not buying it as anything more than a farce to hide a less noble intention. He even went so far as to dispute Rourke's claim of his team being people of science by pointing out the fact that they carried weapons, despite the fact that the commander was quick to reason that they were merely for removing certain obstacles. Although with the way that he had paused when he said that, Yuffie and Sora could not help but join the king in his suspicions, even if only a little. Then again, the king was a little out of line when he demanded that they leave and return to their people immediately, as if he did not think that they might not be able to leave right away, or were even in any condition to leave safely. Thankfully, Rourke was able to convince the king to let them at least stay for one night so that they could rest, resupply, and be ready to travel by the following morning. Sure, the king granted the request begrudgingly, but it was still obviously a win in Rourke's eyes, and it certainly seemed like a reasonable one to the others as well.

One thing that Sora's group could not help but note was that the king was eyeing them for most of the latter half of the meeting, or at least ever since his conversation with the girl had ended. It was almost as though he were more suspicious of them than he was of Rourke, though from the odd glint in his eyes, Yuffie had a hunch that there was something else behind his suspicions about the four of them. There was just something in the way that the girl had rapidly spoken to her father at the end of their conversation in Atlantean that made the ninja think that she had mentioned something to him about their group that seemed almost excited or insistent, while it left the king mildly baffled, although unnoticeably so to most, yet even more cautious than before. Sora had that same hunch as well, and would likely have called someone out on that were it not for the warnings he had already received about mentioning the existence of other worlds to those who were unfamiliar with them in any small way. They probably would have had to leave it a complete mystery too, but that did not be the case, as they soon discovered when the king called for them to wait before they left with Milo and Rourke.

"You four; stay a moment," the king requested/commanded, indicating Sora's group when he did. Milo and Rourke both shot a questioning gaze to the four, who could all only shrug in reply before they parted ways and the doors closed behind both the linguist and the commander, leaving them with only the girl who guided them into the city and the king. Of course, the girl did not stay for long, because after another conversation in Atlantean, the young woman left as well, leaving only the king and the four off-worlders in the room, staring each other down in silence for a few moments. "You are all clearly not part of that other man's group, so I have to wonder why you are here," the king finally stated.

Sora got the feeling that the king was baiting them with that line of questioning, but for what, he did not know. A simple exchange of glances with Yuffie and the others told him that they had the same feeling and question, so in the end, he figured he might as well give the best answer he could. "We were just passing through on a little adventure of our own," Sora explained. "It was not really part of the plan to come here, but we got a little turned around and stumbled across their group just after we all met up with each other."

"So you four are not all together," the king questioned.

"Not exactly. Me and Sora here were already hanging out together for a while, and we ran into these two characters just seconds before the guys who just left," Yuffie clarified, indicating Donald and Goofy when she mentioned a pair of characters.

"I see," the king hummed. "Though I doubt that you are mere travelers. After all, no one could be considered as such when they come from another world, much like each of you." That surprised the four, having not expected the king to go right to that conclusion so quickly, and considering how poorly disguised their shock was, it was no mystery that the king received all the confirmation he needed from their reactions alone. "That means…one of you is the chosen Keybearer, or was Kida mistaken when she mentioned one of you summoned a key-shaped weapon to your hand and slew several creatures of darkness, young man?"

Considering that the king's gaze was fixed so firmly on him, it came as no surprise that Sora was the one who managed to shake off enough of his shock to ask the obvious question. "How…How do you know about that?"

"Yeah, other worlds are supposed to be a secret," Goofy pointed out, covering his mouth as if he were whispering about some hidden conspiracy.

The king merely chuckled a little before he replied, "Even I am older than I appear to be, young ones, and I have been around long enough to have lived in the age when the Keyblade wielders were not sworn to an oath of noninterference and secrecy as they are now. Or as I thought they had become, but since you were so quick to summon your own blade, even if it was to defend others from such obvious creatures of darkness, I cannot help but wonder if something has changed since then."

None of the four were expecting that. Yes, the man was in fact very old, but if what he said was true, then he had to be several centuries old, if not a few millennia. At that thought, they then remembered that Kida was also his daughter, so it also made each of them wonder just how old _she_ was, but as shocking as these revelations were, they were still able to table the long list of new questions for later so that they could focus on the ones pertaining to the current conversation. "Well…I wouldn't know for sure. I only just gained the ability to use the Keyblade a short time ago," Sora finally admitted.

"So…the age of rising darkness and the next war is upon us. Just as it was foretold," the king muttered to himself.

"What do you mean? What war," Yuffie asked. She was hoping that he was referring to the Heartless, but there was a very odd feeling in her gut that told her otherwise, and she did not like it one bit.

"Ages ago, before the time of the Maybermok…" the king began.

"The what," Donald interrupted.

"The Great Flood," the king clarified with a small cough, apparently not realizing that he had unintentionally spoken in Atlantean just then. "At any rate, before that terrible time, Atlantis was one of many worlds that were defended by the valiant and noble Keyblade masters. It was an age where all knew of other worlds, and the only darkness in existence was that of the creatures that thrived in the realm where they are born thrive. Sadly, it would not last, for some time later darkness began to infect the hearts of men, and even extended to the wielders of the Keyblade to the point where they began to war with one another. This led to a terrible time that legends call the Keyblade War, and though the outcome of the war was never clearly decided, as far as anyone of today would know, it did lead to a great change in how the Keybearers carried out their duties. Yes, the worlds were reborn after being lost into the darkness as a result of this cataclysm, but some of the remaining masters believed that they shared some of the blame for what had happened, and thus decided that they and all other wielders of the Keyblade would fade into the shadows, carrying out their duties in secret while keeping the existence of any of the other worlds that we live in today a secret from others. It was not perfect, but it was what they believed to be for the best."

"How do you know about all of this any way," Sora asked.

"One of my friends was actually chosen by the Keyblade when we were small children, and grew to become quite the impressive master by the time that the Keyblade War began. I only learned of what the masters decided because they did not wish for their followers to hide these truths from their closest friends and families, but sadly, after he told me this, I never saw my friend again," the king replied, sadly. "Though when we did last speak, he told me that the first Keyblade master possessed a book that contained many different prophecies of things to come, and one particular prophecy stood out to all among all the rest. It was said that one day, there would come an age where the Keyblade wielders would be pushed to the brink of extinction, and that darkness would once again threaten to consume all the worlds in a way that had never been seen before. How it would come to pass, no one has ever been certain, but they did know of one possible way to avert such disaster."

"How," Yuffie questioned, as she and the others were hanging on every word that the king was saying.

"It was foretold that one day, a new Keybearer would be chosen, one whose light would shine brighter than all other masters that had come before. This wielder would face the darkness, no matter how deep or powerful it may be, and find many allies, be they fellow wielders or even just great warriors that possessed powerful abilities and lights of their own, as he charged forward with Keyblade in hand, to save all those in need. But in order to do so, he would need to never let doubt or fear overcome him, and always remember that he held the greatest weapon of all deep within," the king replied. When he finished, his gaze was firmly locked onto the Keyblade wielder that was standing before him, and the silent implication was not lost to any of them for very long.

Even when he finally registered what was being said, Sora still had to glance around to see if there was anyone else there that the king could be inferring this about before he finally asked his question. "Are you saying that…you think _I'm_ this chosen wielder from the legend?" The silence he received in reply was all the answer he needed. "But…But wait a minute! I literally just got Kingdom Key, I'm no master, and I definitely did not ever even ask for any of this! I just wanted to explore other worlds with my best friends, and now, all I really want is to find those friends and help my newest ones save their world from the supervillains that are threatening it."

"Fate has never been considerate of those it calls upon, my child, nor does it call at a time when we choose. Though this is an old prophecy, and I have not heard anything regarding the Keybearers in over a millennium, but if that time has come, then you may very well hold the key to stemming the tide of the coming darkness," the king dismissed, while providing Sora with only those words of caution.

The other three really felt bad for Sora now. He was already dealing with a lot before learning this, but finding out that he may have been chosen by destiny to save everyone in existence from some unknown darkness that may or may not already be here? That was way too much for anyone to handle, and Yuffie was not going to let him worry about it right now. "Whether that is the case or not, we do still need to get back to Midgard. Any chance you have a way of calling your friend so he could help us," Yuffie inquired.

"No. He may be Atlantean, but the moment he left our city, he lost his ability to live for as long as we do," the king denied. The others wanted to question him on why that was, but he quickly changed the subject, no doubt because it was a secret he did not wish to share with outsiders. "That said, he did tell me that the Keyblade was said to be gifted with the ability to sense when a world was in peril, and would transport its wielder to the world in question so that said wielder could resolve the situation as quickly as possible. Though this was before the masters discovered a way to use the Keyblade as a normal vessel to travel the worlds, and such a thing became unnecessary outside of a great emergency."

"Yeah, we kinda figured some of that out for ourselves. What we'd like to know is how we get it to send us back," Sora pointed out.

"If you are unable to will yourself back to your world, then the Keyblade will only send you home once you have completed whatever it is you need to accomplish in order to protect our world," the king explained. "No doubt it has to do with those dark creatures that Kida informed me of earlier when she brought you all here."

"Well then, I guess we'd better get working on stopping the Heartless, so you can go back to your friends, huh Sora," Goofy cheerily noted. Donald was about to protest what his friend said, but a simple glance from Goofy was all it took to remind the duck that they were still in the presence of royalty, so they should not be disrespectful and start up that argument again right now.

Sora and Yuffie were not quite as optimistic as Goofy though, because they knew exactly what it meant they would have to do. If they wanted to get back to Marvel-topia then they had to find and seal the Keyhole for Atlantis, and they were not really making any headway in finding the one that they had already been actively searching for. Sure, they had contend with tracking down and recapturing the Breakout escapees along with any other supervillains out there, not to mention their school work and other various responsibilities, but still did not change the fact that they had not even found a single hint on where the Keyhole on Midgard could be. With that in mind, you can see why they did not think they were going to be getting back to Avengers Mansion any time soon, because for all they knew, it could take even longer to find the Keyhole for Atlantis, assuming that sealing it was the reason for the Keyblade bringing them here. All the same, they still thanked the king for his help before they took their leave from his throne room.

When they stepped outside, they found that Milo and the others had all left, and with nothing better to do, they decided to go and try and find at least one of them. Of course, they were also resuming their previous discussion about whether Sora should stay with the Avengers or go with Donald and Goofy, but for the most part, it was just Donald and Sora insisting on the option that they were more in favor of. Goofy and Yuffie on the other hand spent the conversation trying to keep the peace amongst the group with little success, or just offering whatever alternative that they could think of that would keep both groups happy. Not that they could think of too many that were possible as far as they knew, but they did think that there might be a way for it to happen. Then again, Sora and Donald did not really seem to be listening to any of the very few alternatives that they did offer, as they were too busy just glaring at each other as they argued back and forth like children.

"I'm staying with the Avengers," Sora insisted for the twelfth time, and Yuffie was counting.

"But if you want to find your friends, they won't be able to help you search other worlds. Just theirs and we need you to help us find King Mickey, so you have to come with us," Donald retorted.

"Marvel-topia is a big place, and you can't honestly tell me that it's going to be any easier with your help than it will be without it," Sora countered. "Besides, no one's asking you to play babysitter for me."

"Well we didn't ask for it, either! We were ordered to stick with you by King Mickey," Donald reminded him.

"Come on, fellers. Don't you think that you're just going in circles with this now," Goofy asked, sounding like he was actually getting a little dizzy, which probably was not too much of a stretch, given how much he and Yuffie had been looking back and forth between the two as this argument continued on.

"No," the two both replied at once, earning them each a growl from the other.

"Oh sure; that they can agree on," Yuffie muttered to herself in annoyance.

Their conversation was put on hold once again though when they heard a loud crash from close by. Racing over, the group quickly found Milo and Kida lying on the ground while something seemed to be burrowing its way into the ground before it finally let out a sound to indicate that it was powering down. Their first thought was that the two were attacked by some sort of enemy machine, but given how there was more mild disappointment in their faces than there was actual fear, that was quickly dismissed in favor of their hurrying over to make sure the two were okay.

"What happened," Donald inquired.

"Uh…well, we were just figuring out how to operate an Atlantean vehicle, and it turns out the controls are a little…sensitive," Milo explained, sheepishly, while Kida just gave him an amused smile.

"Apparently," Yuffie snickered, with the boys following along soon after.

Kida and Milo both joined in on the laughter afterwards until the linguist realized something that he should have thought of before. "You know, we were never really introduced," he noted to the princess. "My name's Milo."

Realizing that they had not properly introduced themselves to her yet either, Sora's group was soon giving their own names to Kida as well. "I'm Sora," the Keyblade wielder waved.

"I'm the great ninja Yuffie," the ninja of the four proudly declared.

"Donald Duck."

"Name's Goofy."

Kida merely smiled in response to this and nodded in kind as she replied, "My name is Kidagakash."

Milo stumbled over himself as he tried to repeat her name in an attempt to pronounce it himself, but he was just barely doing any better than Goofy was at the moment. "Kiadasha…uh, Kianda…"

"Just call her 'Kida'," Donald finally snapped at the two.

If the princess was offended at all, she did not show it at all. Instead, she just chuckled and replied, "That's fine if you want. That's my actual nickname anyway."

"Okay. Kida. I can remember that," Milo nodded in thanks.

The four off-worlders all quickly exchanged knowing looks, feeling that it was obvious that Milo was crushing on the Atlantean girl, and just barely suppressed the knowing chuckles that were about to follow in favor of figuring out the bigger mystery. "What were you guys doing before the failed test-drive anyway," Yuffie inquired.

"We were actually just telling each other a little about both of our worlds, and it turns out that Kida was actually there when this city had sank beneath the sea thousands of years ago," Milo revealed.

"Seriously," the four all gasped.

"Yes," Kida confirmed with a smile, like it was really no big deal, and given what they had just learned from the king, it probably was not to her.

"Wow. I'd say that I hope I look that good when I'm your age, but I think that would be stating the opinion of every young woman alive," Yuffie joked with a grin, earning a few laughs from the others as well.

When the laughter passed, Kida's eyes lit up a little as if she just remembered something, and she immediately turned to the four who had just joined her and Milo. "Perhaps you all could tell us some things about your worlds as well," Kida requested, sounding like an excited kid in a candy store when she did. "Like what sort of people do you know, or what kinds of foods you have, or even something about your weapons and abilities!"

The four were not too sure what to make of that, and instead just turned questioning looks to Milo. "She's very curious about the surface world or really anything from outside Atlantis," he explained. "But I don't know why she would be asking you all about that sort of thing. I mean, you're all obviously from the surface like me and the rest of the crew."

"Maybe, but one of them is a Keyblade master, and at least two of them are clearly from another world aside from mine or yours," Kida replied in their place, blowing that little secret to Milo for them.

"Wait, what," Milo gasped in surprise.

At this point, the four were no longer bothered by that getting out, since it seemed that everyone in Atlantis probably knew about the Keyblade anyway, and one other factor that Yuffie actually pointed out. "Well, it's not like we're able to hide it too well, at least in regards to _certain_ members of our group."

No one needed her glance in Donald and Goofy's direction to know who she was talking about, and surprisingly, neither of them seemed at all offended by it. At least not that much, but regardless, Sora felt that it was okay to at least tell Kida something. "Well, Yuffie and I are currently living on a world called Marvel-topia, and we're part of a team called the Avengers."

"Are they like some kind of hunters or guards," Kida asked, obviously very curious.

"Uh…Not exactly. We're actually superheroes working together to fight the battles that no one else can," Sora clarified as he reached into his pocket to retrieve his ID card so he could show it off. "And we all have one of these."

"What is it," Kida asked as she came closer to look at the card.

"An Avengers ID card. Every member of the team has one," Yuffie replied in Sora's place, showing off her own as she did.

"So you carry one and that makes you an Avenger," Kida asked to make sure she understood right.

"Well if you're given one by a member of the team and its set to your specific identification, then yeah," Sora shrugged. "But they also allow you to access everything in the Avengers' headquarters as well as talk to the other members of…the…team."

A minute after Sora had trailed off at the end, he and Yuffie both looked at each other with dumbfounded expressions and a minute later, slapped themselves in the face as they simultaneously said, "We're stupid."

"What's the matter," Goofy asked.

"We were so busy trying to think of way to get back to Marvel-topia on our own, that we didn't even think to try and call the others with our ID cards," Yuffie explained.

"You can talk to people on other worlds with those things," Donald asked, thinking that they may have found a loophole to their little situation of getting Sora to go with them.

"We're about to find out," Sora replied as he hit the call button on his card. "Sora to Avengers Mansion, does anyone copy?" He paused to wait for a reply, only to receive silence. He was not giving up just yet though. "Wasp, this is Sora. Do you copy…Tony? Steve? Hank…Does anyone copy?" Sadly, none of the people the kid called replied, and he could only sigh in defeat. "Well, I guess that answers the question as to whether or not we can reach the rest of the team from other worlds or not."

"Well at least we can still use them to stay in touch with each other," Yuffie pointed out, trying to look at the bright side of things.

"Good point," Sora replied as he pocketed his card and returned his attention to helping Milo answer any other questions that Kida had about their respective worlds.

Donald on the other hand was still staring after Sora, with a hand to his chin in thought. Even though he was so insistent on getting Sora to come with him and Goofy, he did respect how dedicated Sora was to keeping the promise he gave his friends on Marvel-topia, and did not want the kid to break said promise. Still, he did not think it would be possible for Sora to stay on Marvel-topia and help him and Goofy look for King Mickey and whatever he was searching for, until Sora and Yuffie brought up the ID cards. That action alone had immediately reminded Donald of something he had nearly forgotten about, and now, he had to wonder if maybe it could be just what they needed to resolve that one problem for everyone.

* * *

Talking with Kida was actually entertaining for a quite a while; despite her age, be it her actual age or the age she appeared to be at, she held a curiosity that was almost like that of a small, naïve child that was eager to learn everything there is about the world. Sure, it was a little hard explaining some things to her, some of which should have been easier to explain than others, but that actually did make it a little more fun. Sora and Yuffie could not help but laugh a little when she asked if Iron Man was an actual iron man or if Ant-Man was a giant ant turned into a human, but after a while, the entertainment value did start to lessen for them. After attempting to explain for the fifth time why Captain America was not the actual leader of all of America, they decided to just leave explaining things about stuff from outside of Atlantis to Milo while they decided to search for the Keyhole. If it was in Atlantis somewhere, then they should not have too much trouble finding it, and it was not like the city was as massive as New York, so there were not that many places where it could hide that they knew of.

Their search ended up proving as fruitless as the search for Marvel-topia's Keyhole, but then again, it would probably be a little easier if they knew of all the places in Atlantis that it could be. No one was going to kid themselves into thinking that any Atlanteans were going to tell them about said places either, given how the king and some of the guards and hunters seemed to view outsiders, but things were quickly reaching the point where some of them were considering the idea out of desperation. Not that the search was entirely fruitless, as Donald did take some time to offer Sora a few pointers on how to better control his magic. Sure, a good deal of it was basically a reiteration of what he had learned in that one vision he had on his first day of school, but it did help having an actual, regular user of magic lend a few more pointers that would better improve his control. Still, regardless of whatever help he may have gained, Sora still made it clear that he was not changing his mind about whether or not he would start going to other worlds with Donald and Goofy. After all, it may not be perfect, but if he could just teleport to other worlds with the Keyblade, then why would he need to fly in a ship to reach them? It just did not make sense in his eyes.

As it turned out, using a ship to reach other worlds was starting to seem more and more like a better idea, because the four spent literally the rest of the day, and most of that night searching for the Keyhole, until they finally met up back outside the palace again. It was the only place in Atlantis that they all knew how to get to easiest, so it made sense that they would use it as a rendezvous point when they finally finished their search whether they found something or not. They just wished that it was more of a case of the former than the latter.

"Seriously, how hard is it to find one stupid, magic passage that leads to the heart of an entire world, and is shaped like something you would see every day on anything that has a lock," Yuffie panted in question, having run all over the city several times over, both with one of the others or on her own.

"I guess Thor wasn't kidding when he said that the locations of the Keyholes are incredibly well hidden on each world," Sora noted as he rested his back against a wall.

"No kidding," Goofy and Donald both agreed as they shared a couple bottles of Potions to rejuvenate their energy.

After Sora and Yuffie got a couple potions of their own from the cartoon characters, the Keybearer asked, "Do you think Milo, Kida, and the others are having a better time than us right now?"

Right at that moment, they all heard what sounded like boots thudding against the ground in a loud march, and they turned to see Rourke leading his team up to the palace with weapons in hand, while Milo and Kida were clearly being held against their will. Kida more so than Milo, as Rourke was roughly pushing Milo along while the princess actually had her hands tied behind her back. "I'm going to have to go with no," Yuffie replied to Sora as the four moved to stand in a defensive line.

"Hey, what's the big idea," Donald demanded, his fingers flexing like he was about to summon out his staff and start blasting spells at any moment.

"What does it look like? We're getting what we came for," Rourke explained with a less-than-friendly grin. "And Mister Thatch, here, is going to lead us to it."

When the four looked at Milo, he just said, "Not willingly."

"Oh get off your soapbox, Thatch. It's like I told you earlier, we're just providing a necessary service to the archeological community, and earning quite a large sum of money as a bonus," Rourke informed him, sounding like he was being a real stand-up guy with the whole thing, but there was just no hiding how wrong what he was doing really was. Even less so when Milo filled in the blanks for the four who did not yet have the whole picture.

"For the last time, you don't know what you're dealing with, Rourke. The Heart of Atlantis is not just a large jewel. It's their life-force! That crystal is the only thing that's keeping these people alive, and if you take it away, they will die," Milo almost shouted, shocking all four off-worlders.

"Well like I told you before that just sounds like the price being tripled" Rourke retorted.

"And to us, it sounds like a reason to keep you from getting anywhere near the crystal," Sora snapped, Keyblade flashing into his hand in an instant, while the rest of his friends' weapons all materialized into their hands as well.

"Are you sure you want to try that," Rourke asked, still acting like he was holding all the cards.

"Just try and take another step forward, ya big palooka," Donald snarled before he charged in, ready to either blast someone with a spell at close-range, or just hit them with his staff.

Rourke just smirked and snapped his fingers, signaling the guard holding Kida to turn his gun on her. That made everyone freeze in their tracks, but Yuffie had to act quickly in order to stop Donald before he could get too much further, as he almost missed seeing that action take place. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Now if you folks would be so kind as to step aside," Rourke stated, waving the four out of the way like he was just asking them to move over a little so he could see something behind them.

"You're not gonna get away with this, Rourke," Goofy promised.

"Sure looks like I will to me, dog-boy," the commander waved off. He then motioned Vinny forward and said, "Do it."

While Vinny seemed like he was hesitant to carry out the order, he still placed an explosive at the door into the throne room, and set it to blow. A minute later, the four could only watch as the mercenaries who had been posing as explorers blasted into the throne room and began ransacking the place in a search for the Heart of Atlantis once they made it clear that Kida would be killed if her father or his guards tried to stop them. Seeing it all happen just served to make the heroes a little more and more angry, and Donald was just barely holding it together as it was for Kida's sake. To be honest, Goofy was actually a little impressed that his friend had not already flown off the handle and just charged them in a desperate attempt to either save Kida or beat down Rourke until he let her go, but then again, that was more like something Donald would have done very early on in their adventuring days.

No matter how much they wrecked though, they were not able to turn up any more clues on the location of the Heart of Atlantis than Sora and his friends were able to in regards to the Keyhole, and Rourke was proving to have even less patience in this matter than the heroes. "You're not applying yourself, son. There's got to be something else," Rourke scolded as he shoved Milo's journal at him, thinking that Milo might find something in it that could give them a better clue on where his prize was.

"Well there isn't," Milo insisted as he tried to push back against the larger man. "It just says 'the Heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of her king.'"

"Well then maybe Old King Cole can help us fill in the blanks," Rourke decided as he tossed Milo aside before marching right up to Kida's father. "How about it, chief? Where's the crystal chamber?"

"You will destroy yourselves," was the only answer that the king gave.

"Maybe I'm not being clear," Rourke said, and everyone gasped in horror when they saw him punch the king right in the gut, sending him falling to the ground, and it did not look like the old man was getting back up. While the Milo and the four heroes were now glaring even more fiercely at Rourke and his crew just gaping in disbelief at what their leader had just done, Kida let loose a string of Atlantean words that they were all pretty sure translated into something that was not kid-friendly.

"Rourke, this was _not_ a part of the plan," Sweet snapped as he rushed over to help the king like any reasonable doctor would.

"Plans change, Doc. I'd suggest you put a bandage on that bleeding heart of yours. It doesn't suit a mercenary," Rourke advised, still acting like he was not doing anything wrong, even as he sat himself down on the king's throne and made a show of loading his gun, much to Sweet and the others' horror. "Well as usual, diplomacy has failed us. Now I'm going to count to ten, and you're going to tell me where the crystal is," Rourke informed the king as he pointed his gun at him. "One…two…" When the king continued to give no answer, Rourke's patience seemed to finally run dry. "Nine…T—"

"No," Audrey interrupted, moving to stand in between her commander and the king. "Enough's enough, Rourke. This is wrong and you know it."

"Oh you can't be serious," Rourke sighed, clearly getting annoyed. "Audrey, get out of the way. I'm trying to get us our biggest payday ever. Now's not the time to grow a consciousness."

Audrey did not move. She just crossed her arms and stayed right where she was, and Sweet was soon moving to stand right next to her. Not that it was surprising that he did so, given that as a doctor, he felt he had a strong obligation to see to the health of his patient, even if said patient had been an enemy just a second ago, but Rourke was a little more surprised when Vinny, Cookie, and even Mole moved to stand next to her, with Milo moving to do the same as well along with Sora and the others. "The kids are right, Rourke. It's over the minute that the gravy's golden," Cookie agreed.

"So you're really going to turn on me? Now of all times," Rourke asked. "None of you are really any better than I am, you know."

"We're not saying we are," Vinny pointed out. "We've done a lot of things we're not proud of. Robbing graves, plundering tombs, double parking, but nobody ever got hurt." When the others cast him a look from out of the corners of their eyes, Vinny then amended, "Well, maybe somebody got hurt, but nobody we knew."

"Face the facts, Rourke. Your own people are against you on this, and if you really want to hurt anyone else, or get near that crystal, then you're going to have to go through us," Sora promised, Keyblade in hand and ready for action. He was a little curious about why Vinny would include double parking in his list of things that they were not proud of, seeing as it was not nearly as bad as the first two, but that was not really important right now.

Rourke just swept his eyes over the assembled group, searching for any kind of hesitation or doubt in their intentions to stand against him, only to find none at all. They were all really going to fight him on this if they had to, and he was both outnumbered and outmatched. At least, that's what it looked like, but apparently that was not the case, because Rourke only let out a tired sigh, glanced behind him, and said, "Looks like you were right. They didn't have the stomach for this."

"Well you know what they say: good help is so hard to find these days," replied a familiar, distorted voice, and the speaker did not waste any time stepping forward from the shadows in all of his dark, helmeted glory.

"Night Hunter," Sora snarled in recognition. "What're you doing here?"

"Oh you know. I was looking for a nice place to get away to for vacation and the brochure made this city seem pretty cool," Night Hunter jokingly shrugged before he turned serious again. "What do you think I'm doing here? I'm spreading the power of darkness to another world by setting the Heartless loose in it and granting their power to someone who I think could benefit from it. Like my new buddy, Rourke here."

"And speaking of Heartless," Rourke stated before he snapped his fingers, and an instant later, several Shadows, Soldiers, Wizards, and even some large, rotund Heartless that Yuffie identified as Large Bodies appeared all around the throne room, making everyone form a circle around the injured king, while Audrey simply cut Kida free from her bonds. "Now, let's try this again. His majesty's going to tell me where the crystal is, and you lot are going to stay out of my way until I get it."

"Or we just kick both your butts, destroy all the Heartless in the room, and you walk away with nothing more than your life," Yuffie counter-offered.

"You guys handle the Heartless and Rourke. Night Hunter's mine," Sora ordered as his helmet folded out over his head. "Avengers, assemble!"

No one moved in response to the battle cry. Instead, most of them just looked at Sora in silence until Yuffie pointed out. "Um Sora? This is us. We're already assembled seeing as you and me are the only two Avengers here."

"You might want to count again, because I see four Avengers," Goofy corrected as he stepped forward. "That is, if you don't mind me n' Donald joining up, of course."

That surprised the two a little, and Sora was quick to explain why. "I thought you guys didn't want to get involved with a team of heroes from another world."

"Well, you two are part of the team, and the king said we should stick with you, so I guess we don't really have a choice, do we," Donald smirked in reply. It was pretty clear by that smirk that he was more than willing to join up regardless, but they all figured that he was just explaining that line of logic so he would not seem like he was just going to throw the rules he was so insistent on following out the window with a tip of the hat.

"Hey, are you going to throw a tea party, or do you actually plan to fight while you still have people to save? Not that I mind either way," Night Hunter cut in as his sword appeared in his hand. He then lunged forward, heading straight for Sora, but the Keybearer easily intercepted the blade with Kingdom Key, and the two were soon battling it out with each other once more while the others did as Sora had ordered.

Milo, Kida, and Rourke's former did not just sit back and watch either. They were joining in the fight too, and they were certainly able to put up quite the fight, with and without their guns. Audrey was probably the fiercest of them as she showed off a fighting technique that was similar to that of a boxer, when she was not slinging a wrench she had on her at the Heartless, while Mole was probably the most unconventional in that he would pop up around random Heartless in hit-and-run tactics that made one think that the dark creatures were playing a game of Wak-A-Mole with him before he finally curled up in a ball and bowled them over. Cookie was firing off as many rounds from his shotgun as he could, and when he was not doing that, he was tossing out some of what he called the "bad slop" like it was a weapon. Strangely enough, most of it actually caused the Heartless to disappear on impact as quickly as they would if Sora had struck them with his Keyblade. Meanwhile, Vinny was going between shooting them with his own shotgun and just throwing out any explosives that he had on him, which turned out to be quite a lot from the look of things. When a Large Body nearly dropped down on him, he tossed a cherry bomb into its face that caused it to stumble over backwards and then destroy both itself and another Large Body and a couple Wizards when it finally collapsed on its back.

Vinny was a little shocked at this for a minute before he finally smirked a little and said, "Okay, now things are getting good."

"Speak for yourself," Milo told the explosive expert as he scrambled to avoid too much of the fighting, and only hitting back when he absolutely had to. Not that he was able to hit back with much, given that he was the least experienced fighter out of the group and did not have any weapons of his own besides his fists, mind, and the journal that he had deciphered so that they could find Atlantis.

"Milo," Kida suddenly called out, and he turned just in time to catch a spear that she had tossed over to him. With a real weapon now in hand, Milo was able to put up a much better fight than before. Sure, it was still a sloppy one, but it was better than just running or flailing around at anything dangerous that got too close to him.

It was no surprised that Kida was delivering quite the beat down on the Heartless. After all, the princess was leading a team of hunters when they first met her, so it would have been silly to think that she did not have some combat training at least, and she was showing just how much of a scraper she was. Though she was not opposed to the assistance that Goofy provided when he blocked a few fireballs or ice shards that would have greatly harmed her, and the knight was all too happy to provide any assistance he could to everyone on his side. Meanwhile, Donald was finally letting his pent up frustration loose in all of its burning glory, and a few Heartless actually seemed like they were attempting to run away from him as a result, given how many powerful spells he threw out at them. Sure, he spared a defensive spell or two here and there, but most of Donald's magic efforts were focused on the offensive or healing up anyone that needed it at a moment's notice, as Yuffie could attest to when the duck managed to cast a quick Cure on her when she took a nasty hit to the side that would have left her vulnerable to the Soldier that nearly knocked her out of the fight.

The only one who was not actively fighting either Heartless or Night Hunter was Sweet. Yes, he was fighting when he had to, but most of his focus was on protecting the old king while he saw to the injuries that he had sustained after Rourke had hit him. Needless to say, it was not looking good from what the doctor could tell, and he was fully determined to make sure that Rourke would pay in full if he ended up losing the old man. Rourke himself did not enter the fight right away, as he was simply content with just watching at first, but when it became clear that the tide was not turning in his favor, he finally stepped in and started firing on the heroes that dared get in his way. Thankfully, Goofy managed to intercept most of his bullets, and with Donald providing covering fire, Yuffie was able to get in close and deliver quite a few hard punches, kicks, and even a few stabs to Rourke whenever she spotted a chance.

All of this was blocked out of Sora's mind, as he was mostly focused on Night Hunter, who was proving to be just as fierce an opponent as the last time they had met. Sure, he did not have the distraction of a Heartless Boss threatening lives like before, but there were still Heartless threatening people all the same, and even without such distractions, he could tell that the dark warrior was certainly a much more capable fighter than the spiky haired teen was. Sora was not holding back though, but it was a little difficult for him to really focus too much on the fight with his archenemy when he could still catch glimpses of the others' fights from the corner of his eye. He knew that his Keyblade stood a better chance of slaying the Heartless than anything else, but with someone as dangerous as Night Hunter in play, Sora could not really afford to worry about the small fries. He needed to keep his attention on their leader, and to do that, he found himself calling upon a lot of his recent lessons with Yuffie and T'Challa.

Thankfully, that was turning out to be enough, as Night Hunter actually found himself having to try a little harder in his fight against Sora this time, but not to the point where he was actually going at full steam just yet. "Heh. Not bad, Keyblade Samurai. You've gotten better, but you're still nowhere near good enough to beat me," Night Hunter mocked.

"That's what you think," Sora stated as he lunged forward, ready to run his Keyblade through the masked man. Night Hunter easily teleported away from the attack, reappearing on Sora's left side, as he saw that the kid had left himself open there. Or so he thought, because he soon found his strike intercepted by Sora's Keyblade and he was then pushed back by the spiky haired boy a mere few seconds later. "But I think I've gotten a lot better since then. Besides, you haven't got any Heartless Bosses to distract me with this time, so that means you've got my full attention."

"Oh really? Well let me know when I should actually start trying then," Night Hunter mocked, and he suddenly redoubled his pace, putting Sora on the defensive once more. He kept the kid there for quite a bit, and Sora soon found himself nearly backed into a wall behind him, much to the villain's amusement. "Come on, Sora. I thought you were stronger than that."

That one comment made Sora freeze for a moment, because it sounded exactly like what Riku would say to him in some of their spars. Not just the words either, but the way it was said, even if it did have a more diabolical tint to it than it did whenever Riku said the line. Either way, his moment of pause proved to be an opening that Night Hunter was able to take easy advantage of, and Sora soon found himself blasted away by a burst of dark fires from the villain's off-hand, before he unleashed an energy wave with a single swing of his sword. Thankfully, Sora managed to roll clear of the follow-up attack, and was quick to try and get back on the offensive, clashing and parrying Night Hunter's blade against Kingdom Key as best as he could, but all the while, he could not help but notice how Rourke was slowly gaining an aura of darkness of his own as the fight dragged on.

Apparently Sora was not the only one, as Yuffie and the others took notice of this too, but only the ninja herself knew what was happening. "Sora! Rourke's starting to lose himself to the Heartless and their power," Yuffie called out. "If we don't take him out now, then we'll be dealing with a whole new Heartless entirely, and somehow, I don't think it'll just be another Shadow that appears when he turns."

"Oh dear. Guess I forgot to warn him about that little detail," Night Hunter shrugged in false concern. "You should probably hurry and do something before your friends have a more powerful Heartless to contend with, little hero."

Sora just snarled at Night Hunter in response, as the masked man stepped out of the fight and into a dark portal that had materialized behind him, evading capture once again, but he did not have time to worry about the dark warrior. His friends needed his help, and Sora was not one to ignore his friends when they were in need of any help that he could provide. That was why he did not hesitate to start charging towards Rourke, slashing and blasting any Heartless that were between him and the commander as he went. Rourke saw the kid coming, and instantly fired on him, but Sora managed to raise his Keyblade in time to deflect the first few shots, and allowed Goofy to block the rest with his shield when the knight suddenly raced in front of him. When Rourke paused to reload his pistol, Milo took the chance to toss his borrowed spear at the commander, and somehow managed to knock the gun out of Rourke's hand, much to both of their surprise. Thankfully, Sora was not thrown off by this, and immediately jumped up over Goofy and high into the air, his Keyblade drawn back at the ready so that when he came down, so did his blade, and it went right through Rourke in one fell slash.

After the kid had landed behind him, Rourke stumbled over on his feet for a minute, feeling a little light-headed at first, until a deep feeling of cold suddenly rushed over him when he finally started to fall to the floor. He had only just reached a point where his whole body felt like ice seconds before he had hit the ground, but barely even one second after he had, all feeling seemed to disappear, and Rourke vanished into a plum of dark smoke without leaving a single trace of him behind, save for his lost weapon. Everyone could only stare at where Rourke had just been until Cookie finally asked the question that everyone was wondering. "What in tarnation just happened to him?"

"His heart was overpowered by the Heartless," Yuffie explained, being the only one in the room that was most familiar with these dark creatures. "I've seen it before when the Heartless had laid siege to my home. The Heartless prey on the darkness within people's hearts; fanning it into an even greater flame, until the shadows completely overtake them and effectively turn them into a Heartless as well. Sometimes, it would just lead to the creation of a new Shadow, Soldier, or really any other regular Heartless, but if the person is strong enough, be it in terms of their heart or their will, then when they fall, a new Heartless Boss is likely to be born as a result. Of course, that's just a worst-case scenario, but there's no question that the power of a person's heart can often determine just how powerful their Heartless is when they fall to the darkness in their heart, and darkness is in every heart. The Heartless just somehow know how to fan the flames into a stronger blaze, likely out of a natural instinct or something."

"But wasn't there something we could've done to save him," Audrey asked. She may not have been onboard with what Rourke wanted to do, but that did not mean that she actually wanted him to die.

"Honestly if there was, I don't know what it could've been. No one's been able to turn back after they were that far gone. The only thing you can really do is put them out of their misery as quickly as possible. Better to make it quick than to let them suffer as a mindless monster of darkness that acts out on nothing more than animal instinct," Yuffie sadly reported. She then went over to Sora, having a good idea of what was likely going through his head right now, especially since he was now standing stock still, placed a hand on his shoulder, and reassured him, "Trust me, Sora. You did the right thing here."

"Yeah, so why do I feel so horrible," Sora asked in a somber tone. "I just killed someone after all."

"No you didn't. Rourke was dead the moment that Night Hunter granted him that power over the Heartless. All you did was release him from any further suffering he may have endured," Yuffie insisted. She then lowered her gaze a little before she added, "That doesn't mean that the first kill like this is any easier though. I'd have been more worried if you were able to do that and just brush it off like you had merely slain another monster."

Sora's gaze did not change for a few moments, nor did it move from the floor, but when it did, he managed to give Yuffie a grateful smile of thanks for her words, earning him a relieved smile from the ninja in return. All smiles quickly vanished though when Sweet called their attention to him and the king, instantly making Kida even more worried for her father. "How is he," Milo asked the minute they had reached the doctor.

"Not good I'm afraid. Internal bleeding. There's nothing more I can do for him," Sweet reported, sadly. It was always hard for a doctor to have to give bad news about their patient's wellbeing.

The bad news seemed to hit Milo almost as hard as it did Kida, as the linguist could only hang his head in sorrow as he muttered, "What a nightmare, and I brought it here."

"Ah don't go beating yourself up. Rourke had been after that crystal since Iceland," Sweet tried to reassure Milo.

Apparently it had more than the desired effect, because Milo's eyes quickly lit up with a look of inspiration. "The crystal…Sweet, that's it," Milo said as he cupped the crystal that the king wore around his neck. "These crystals that they wear…They have some sort of healing energy. I-I've seen it work. Kida, you used it on me when we first met in the volcano."

Sweet and the other non-Atlanteans all seemed to brighten up in excitement at this, but for some reason, Kida's sorrowful expression remained unchanged, and they soon learned why. "No," the king coughed, placing his hand over Milo's. "It…It won't work." He then glanced up at Milo and asked, "Where is my daughter?"

"I'm right here, Father," Kida replied, grasping her father's other hand to better show him.

That earned a smile from the old king as he gasped, "Thank the past kings…He did not find the crystal, and you were not chosen, like your mother before you."

"What," Milo and Kida both gasped, while the others just looked on with perplexed expressions.

"In times of danger, the crystal would choose a host, one of royal blood, to protect itself and its people. It will accept no other," the king explained.

"Are you saying that this Heart of Atlantis that Rourke was so obsessed with was…alive," Yuffie questioned.

"In a way," the king confirmed. "The crystal thrives on the collected emotions of all who came before us. In return, it provides power, longevity, protection, and as it grew, it developed a consciousness of its own."

"Almost sounds a lot like what I've heard about the Keyblade," Sora quietly muttered as he glanced down at Kingdom Key.

The king was not quite done with his tale though. "In my arrogance, I sought to use it as a weapon of war, but its power proved too great to control. It overwhelmed us and led to our destruction."

"That's why you've hidden it away. To keep history from repeating itself," Milo realized.

"And to prevent Kida from suffering the same fate as my beloved wife," the king finished for him.

"What do you mean? What would've happened to Kida if she was chosen by the crystal," Donald asked.

"If she were to bond with the crystal, and remain that way, she would likely have been lost forever," the king explained, shocking everyone, including Kida. The king looked to the princess and caressed her cheek as he said, "My love for you is all I had left, Kida. My burden would have become yours alone when the time was right, but now, I think that…it should fall to both you, and to him."

When the others turned to see who the king was referring to, it came as little surprise that it was Milo that he was passing his crystal off to. That did not mean it was not surprising at all though, but especially in Milo's case. "Me," the linguist asked.

"I see now that Kida was right when she said that our way of life was not thriving, but I believe, that you can help her to bring us back to who our people once were," the king explained once he had placed his crystal in Milo's hands. "Keep the crystal safe. Save and Protect Atlantis. Protect my daughter."

Milo just looked between Kida and her father for a minute, hardly believing that this was happening, but when the princess showed nothing but unwavering faith in him, while the king's eyes merely looked at him pleadingly, he found he could do nothing more than nod in response to the king's request. The king then turned his attention to Sora and his group as he said, "Keybearer, if I may make one last request, all I ask is that you seal the Keyhole of our city, so that those horrible creatures may never return to threaten it again."

"Sure, but we were already trying to do that before all of this happened, and we have no idea where it even is," Sora admitted to the king.

"You will find it in the chamber that holds the Heart of Atlantis, and as your friend said, the Heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of her king," the king replied, pointing out to a spot directly in front of the throne, and they all saw what they had missed before. There, in the center of the room, the stones that lined a path atop the water in the middle formed an exact match to the symbol that was on the cover of Milo's journal.

Seeing this and now armed with the new knowledge, the four could only nod in silent reply to the king, and the old man simply smiled in return as his hand finally fell limp at his side, while the hand Kida held fell limp in her grasp, bringing a wave of tears from the princess as a result, while the others all bowed their heads in silent respect for the fallen king.

* * *

After giving Kida's father a worthy funeral service, or at least the Atlantean version of one, Sora led Yuffie, Donald, Goofy, Milo, and Kida down to the crystal chamber so that they could finally seal the Keyhole of Atlantis. This ended up being the easiest thing that they had to do since they got here, because the moment that they had fully descended into the crystal chamber, the Keyhole appeared between them and the Heart of Atlantis itself in a brilliant flash of light. They all stared at the magical passage for a moment before Sora felt Kingdom Key suddenly materialize into his hand and then jerk towards it, releasing a beam of light from its tip the minute that Sora had it fully directed towards the Keyhole. When the beam came into contact with the Keyhole, they all heard a loud, locking sound echo around them, and the Keyhole itself disappeared soon after. They all took that to mean that the Keyhole had been successfully sealed, and then left so that they could attend to any remaining business they had to take care of in Atlantis.

Rourke's former crew were all sure that they would be either killed or imprisoned for their part in what the commander had done, but given how valiantly that they had defended her home, Kida was willing to pardon them from any wrongdoings, gifting them each with their own crystals so that they would always be welcomed into Atlantis as friends. They were all very grateful for that, but when Kida offered to send them back home with a ship full of gold and jewels as a compensation for their inability to return the crystal to the surface world, they were quick to try and refuse, saying that they could not accept such a thing. Sadly, the new queen of Atlantis insisted, saying that it was the least they could do for their part in saving her people's home. When they began preparing for the return trip home, Milo revealed that he was staying behind to keep his promise to the late king and help Kida revive her people's dying culture and civilization. After all, he was the only one there who actually knew how to read Atlantean, so it only seemed right that he play a part in helping them to rediscover how great the lost empire's history was.

As for Sora, Yuffie, Donald, and Goofy, they too found themselves being gifted with their own Atlantean crystals as a sign that they would also be welcomed back into Atlantis as friends, should they ever return, with Kida saying that the other Avengers would be given one as well should Sora ever decide to bring them along when they next visited. The four graciously thanked Kida for her kindness, but were much more insistent on not accepting any treasure as a reward for their help in stopping Night Hunter, Rourke, and the Heartless. Well, most of them were at least. Donald was sorely tempted to take a jewel or two along with him, and probably would have if Goofy had not reminded him why they could not take anything other than the crystals that Kida had given them. That did not stop the duck from at least thinking about swiping an extra gem or two just because, saying that he was going to give it to his Uncle Scrooge as a little present when he and Goofy got home again, assuming that Scrooge was home as well when they did return. With all of that said and done, there was still one matter left for the four to resolve, and it was the very same one that they had been arguing over since they first arrived on this world and met one another. Sora and Yuffie were both sure that Donald was going to go into another rant on why Sora had to leave the Avengers and travel with him and Goofy, but they found themselves in for quite a shock when something else happened.

"Now remember, don't ignore bed times no matter what time zone you all are in, keep Dewey from jumping head first into anything as much as possible, don't let Huey have too much sugar, and…" Donald said into a small, yellow device that had the shape of a three-pointed king's crown resting at the top, before a Scottish accented voice cut him off.

 _"I run a multi-trillion dollar business. I can handle a few juveniles for a wee while. You just focus on this big job that Mickey has got ye and Goofy doing fer him. Besides, we've got some pretty low-key plans for while yer gone, anyhow,"_ the Scotsman on the other end reassured Donald.

"Well, if you're sure, Uncle Scrooge. I just want to make sure that everything turns out okay, unlike the last time I left the boys with you," Donald reminded his rich uncle.

 _"Yer just never gonna let me live that down, are ye, lad,"_ Scrooge complained, though from the sounds of things, it was a little more playful than it was serious. _"Like ye keep tellin' the boys, yerself, I'm an expert at gettin' out of trouble, and I'm the best suited fer teachin' the lads how to get into and out of trouble the right way."_

"Okay, okay. I just worry. Tell them I said hi, and that I love them," Donald finally said in resignation before he signed off and turned to see his two newest friends looking at him in awe.

"Are you telling me that you had a device that could call people on other worlds this whole time," Yuffie asked in disbelief.

"Well, not exactly," Donald sheepishly replied. "This Kingdom Caller can only send and receive signals to another Caller or a device similar to it, so it wouldn't have worked if you had tried using it to call your friends on Midgard, unless they had something that was really close to being just like it."

"Yep, but even with that draw back, it's the perfect way of staying in touch with folks even when you're all the way on a different world, no matter where it may be in the universe," Goofy finished. "The professor who invented it is a real genius coming up with a handy gizmo like that. Yes siree."

"Well do you guys have any spares or something," Sora instantly asked.

"Of course. We've got families back home that we like to stay in touch with, so we keep a few extra Callers around in case one is ever lost or broken somehow," Donald replied like it was obvious.

"Well then that solves all of our problems," Sora exclaimed in excitement. "If you guys give me one of these Kingdom Callers, you can keep searching other worlds for King Mickey while I stay on Marvel-topia to help the Avengers. That way, if you do find any clues, I can use the Keyblade to teleport to you guys, or I can even call you in case we ever need your help!"

"Hey, that's a great idea! Why didn't we think of that before," Goofy asked.

"I guess it just never occurred to us," Donald shrugged, hiding that he had thought of the idea long before now. Not that he was entirely successful, considering that Yuffie saw right through him if the knowing smile and wink she threw at him was any indication, but then again, if the wink he gave her in return was any indication, Donald did not really care about being found out this time.

With the problem of what Sora would do going forward now solved, it was only a matter of moments before Donald had teleported up to the ship that had brought him and Goofy to Atlantis before he came back with a couple of spare Kingdom Callers to give to Sora. When he had both devices pocketed safely, Sora summoned his Keyblade and gave a final wave to King Mickey's two best friends before making another attempt to return to Avengers Mansion with Yuffie. Thankfully, this time around, it seemed to work, as the two had vanished in a flash of light just seconds after Sora had the Keyblade out in front of him, and closed his eyes to focus on the mansion, and Goofy and Donald both departed from Atlantis a short while afterwards.

* * *

This time when the light died down enough for Sora and Yuffie to see without going blind, they instantly recognized their surroundings, and they were very relieved to see that they were back in the lounge of Avengers Mansion. In fact, they were so relieved, that they took a moment or two to take in everything that just happened to them until they finally let out an excited cheer over the fact that they were back where they needed to be. Their cheering kept to the lounge for a few minutes, and included some overjoyed hugs before they finally raced out to let the others know that they were home. The first person that they found turned out to be none other than Wasp, and Sora immediately latched onto her as he cheered happily, much to Janet's surprise.

"Jan, we're back! We're back," Sora happily announced as he hugged the size-changer tightly.

"Yeah…That's great to hear, Sora. But um…where did you go," Janet asked, confusion as evident in her voice as a clear sky on a nice summer day.

Before either of the two could answer, Hank came from around the corner, and said, "Oh, there you two are. I thought you two might want some help with getting your homework out of the way so you could better enjoy the rest of your weekend, but maybe next time, let us know when you're going to go out to spend time with your school friends?"

Now Sora and Yuffie were confused, and they made that evident when Sora said, "But…we've been gone for hours."

Now Janet and Hank were even more confused, and everyone's confusion grew when JARVIS reported that Sora and Yuffie had barely been gone for more than half an hour as far as his sensors could tell. That prompted an immediate trip to the lab that Tony was working in, with the younger Avengers thinking that JARVIS had some kind of bug in his systems, while the older two just thought that they needed to be a little more worried about the kids of the Avengers. It started to look like the size-changers were more than right to be concerned though, as Tony reported that JARVIS was completely fine, and when Yuffie checked the time on her phone, she saw that they were not kidding when they said that they had only been gone from the mansion for half an hour, much to her and Sora's surprise. When the others realized this, it led to the obvious question of why they were so shocked by this revelation, which of course led the two to explain the whole adventure that they had just had. Everything from arriving in Atlantis, to meeting Donald and Goofy, the most recent face-off with Night Hunter and the Heartless, and of course helping to save Atlantis by defeating Rourke and sealing the Keyhole.

By the time that Sora and Yuffie had finished telling the story, the other Avengers were beyond speechless for several minutes. When Hank finally did manage to regain his voice, he was more than ready to suggest that they had dreamed the whole thing up, until Sora produced the Kingdom Callers as evidence that the whole thing had actually happened. "Incredible," Hank gasped in awe. "A world where one of the greatest mysteries of all time has been solved and a device that can actually communicate with others from another world, no matter how great the distance? And the technology in this Caller…even JARVIS can't understand the exact scientific workings behind it."

"I'm surprised that the best men that Mickey sent to help Sora in all of this turned out to be Donald Duck and Goofy. Does anyone else think we should be a little worried about that," Tony half-joked.

"Hey, they may be pretty similar to how they are in the cartoons and movies, but they're also really great in a fight too. Sure, me and Donald got off on the wrong foot, but I'd say the fact that he let us have those Callers instead of just forcing me to go with him and Goofy on their ship should prove that he's not entirely like how he's depicted in those things," Sora pointed out in his new friends' defense.

"What I want to know is how come so little time passed here when we were on Atlantis for practically an entire day," Yuffie asked.

"That's easy. It's like I told Sora the night before his first day of school, time usually flows differently between two different worlds. What could be an entire twenty-four hour day for one world could only be five minutes for us, while a whole week for us could be barely more than a few minutes for someone else," Tony explained. "I think we should consider ourselves lucky you guys ended up on a world where it was a case of the former as opposed to the latter."

"Still, I was kinda hoping that we'd all be going with you when you finally figured out how to get to another world," Janet admitted with a pout, showing that she had been hoping to be able to go along on this herself more than any of the others. This did not surprise Sora, as the minute that Janet had heard he would have to travel to other worlds, she had been pestering him into making sure that she came along with on as many of those adventures as possible. Of course, now that Sora knew how to get to other worlds, there did seem like there could potentially be a problem with keeping that promise; a problem that Steve quickly pointed out.

"Either way, are you sure that you can handle how you get to these other worlds now? If the Keyblade is supposed to just transport you to them the minute it senses that a world's in trouble, who's to say that it won't do so at a time that would prove problematic to a mission at hand," Steve mentioned.

"Cap's got a point. Who's to say that you won't get zapped away while we're in the middle of chasing down one of the Breakout escapees, or when we're fighting some other big supervillain," Tony asked.

"Well…I don't think that the Keyblade would do that…Maybe," Sora tried to reassure them.

"So you have no way of knowing for sure," T'Challa filled in for him.

"No, not really," Sora admitted. "But hey, now I know how to get to other worlds, so maybe figuring out how to keep the Keyblade from zapping me away to one that's in danger right away will be a little easier to figure out."

The rest of the Avengers did not really share Sora's optimism on the matter, since they knew that the kid's abilities with his other magic powers were still a bit shaky, but considering how excited he was over the fact that he now knew how to reach other worlds so he could help them, they did not have the heart to call him out on it. In the end, they simply decided to leave the matter alone for now and return to what they were doing before. Though Hank decided to hold off on helping Yuffie and Sora get through their weekend homework tonight, because from the way they were excitedly recounting their story to Janet once again, he just knew that they were not going to be able to get much done on it tonight.

* * *

 ** _AN: And there ya go! Sora's now able to travel to other worlds with a little Keyblade abracadabra, they've met Donald and Goofy, found a way for Sora to work with those guys and still stay with the Avengers, and they helped save Atlantis from Rourke, Night Hunter, and the Heartless._**

 ** _Yuffie: Anyone else feel like the story played out a lot differently from how it did in the movie?_**

 ** _AN: Well, since when do you remember the story of a Disney movie going the exact same way as it did originally when it shows up in the Kingdom Hearts series? Besides, if I did all of the Atlantis adventure, even from the point when Sora and the others entered into it, the chapter would've been a little too long for my liking, and I wanted to get this first world done in one chapter._**

 ** _That said, who was expecting Kida's father to know something about the Keyblade? Hm? You didn't, did you? Part of me wanted to make him into this story's version of King Triton, but then again, having Sora be subjected to that kind of treatment so soon into his Keyblade wielder career would've been a little mean. We did still drive home the lesson about how you can't always save everyone to Sora with the Atlantean king's death, but I'm not entirely sure if we should be thankful for that or not._**

 ** _Goofy: Well better to learn that lesson sooner rather than later, so maybe it is a good thing._**

 ** _Donald: By the way, what's the big idea with those Kingdom Caller thingies that we had here?_**

 ** _AN: That's actually based off a thing that appears to be happening in Kingdom Hearts 3. You see, in one of the recent trailers for the game, we saw Sora talking to Ienzo from Twilight Town, while the young scientist was in Radiant Garden, and they were using the very devices we saw in this chapter. I'm not sure if that's what they will be called or not, but I honestly just named them as such because it seemed appropriate, mainly because of how the main gummi ship is usually named the Kingdom. And really, let's be honest, if Donald and Goofy were well-known fictional characters on Earth, or rather Marvel-topia, do you really think that I would be adding them to the official Avengers line-up. That doesn't mean that they won't be working with the Avengers or coming to Marvel-topia from time to time, but their main focus is to search the other worlds for clues on where King Mickey is, and I suppose you could say that they're also helping Sora look for Riku and Kairi on other worlds too, even if it wasn't actually mentioned._**

 ** _Sora: Plus, Scrooge Mcduck got to make a cameo appearance too. Along with a few references to the events of Ducktales._**

 ** _AN: Yeah, that was fully intended to be as it appeared. You can interpret it however else you like beyond that, but take this as confirmation that some of the things in Ducktales, be it the new series or the old one have happened in this series. That said, I'm not one hundred percent sure I spelled any Atlantean terms I actually used here correctly, so cut me some slack on that if I did mess up there, please? It was proving impossible for me to find the actual spelling for those words anywhere that I looked._**

 ** _Captain America: You know, I feel like the Heartless and Night Hunter did not really have much of a role this time around in the chapter, especially given that it was the latter's second official appearance in this story._**

 ** _AN: Well to be honest, the main intention behind this chapter, was to help Sora better understand how the Keyblade could teleport him to other worlds, why, and basically everything else involved with said matters. Sure, there was also the sealing of the first Keyhole in this story, but even that was a minor note in comparison to everything else in this chapter. Don't worry, the next world we visit will have the characters from said world and the bad guys being involved, as you'll all soon see._**

 ** _Wasp: How soon?_**

 ** _AN: Try next chapter soon. Don't believe me? Then move Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _Sora's next adventure on another world comes much sooner than anyone expects, only this time, he's zapped off to another world with Thor and Hulk along for the ride. Thankfully, any irritation that anyone has over the sudden trip is quickly put aside when they realize that the world they had landed in is one that Thor is familiar with, and it is hosting a tournament that would pit great warriors against one another in battle. Despite entering this tournament for both a chance for Sora to better improve his combat abilities and for some fun, the three Avengers find themselves caught up in a sinister plot that the local villain has for that world's greatest hero, who turns out to be an old friend of Thor's. Can the team stop this diabolical scheme and save Thor's friend, or will the fighter that this underhanded Lord of the Dead has brought in prove to be more than they can handle? Be ready for the next contestant, in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Yeah, in case it's not clear, Hulk and Thor are going with Sora to the next world, and if you know the first Kingdom Hearts game's story, then there's only one world that it could be. But this is also the part where I may have to disappoint some of you, because I'm going to tell you right now that...Cloud's not going to be there._**

 ** _Sora, Hulk, & Thor: What?! Why not?!_**

 ** _AN: Because he's off on another mission of his own in this series at the moment, and it's a very important one that has a stronger chance of leading him to Sephiroth or people like him. Don't worry, the warrior they fight will still be from the Final Fantasy series. I just hope no one gets too upset with who it is that I have them fight._**

 ** _Hulk: I feel like this is also where Thor's most famous line from Thor Ragnarok is finally going to come into play._**

 ** _AN: That's a good hunch, but it may be a while before I post that chapter, because there's another Kingdom Hearts story that is long overdue for its posting which I intend to get up as soon as possible. That's right. For you Keyblades Unleashed fans and followers, I can confirm that Keyblade Legion will finally be making its big debut at last, because its first chapter will be the next thing that I post on here._**

 ** _Roxas: Yes! Finally!_**

 ** _Xion: I can't wait to finally get those chapters posted so that everyone can see how much more awesome we'll be this time around!_**

 ** _AN: Well just try to hold it in a little longer you two, because for now, there's something else that I'd like my readers and followers to do._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	8. Olympus Coliseum

**_AN: Hey everyone, welcome to 2019, and sorry for the long wait, but now at last, we finally have another update for Hearts of Avengers, and even better, Kingdom Hearts 3 is just right around the corner! Yeah you heard me, as Woody had put it in Toy Story 3, IT'S RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!_**

 ** _[audience roaring applause mixed in with excited cheering from all KH cast members]_**

 ** _Oh yeah, you know that I was going to update at least one of my Kingdom Hearts stories before that came out, and I'm glad I finished this chapter when I did. I'm actually a little worried that I might not be able to update anything for a while because I'll be so busy playing that game._**

 ** _Sora: Yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone would understand if that was the case, unless they're not a Kingdom Hearts fan._**

 ** _AN: Well, here's hoping. Now, before we get into things, let's answer a review or two. Starting off with "theIrishWriter". To answer your question about Cap knowing any Irish or not...I'm not really sure if he ever did in EMH canon, and to be honest, I've never really thought about that too much myself. Now that you have mentioned it though, I'll have to remember that for later so I can work it in somehow._**

 ** _I'd answer a few of "Dragon Rider 66"'s questions, but I think they've all already been answered by now. Though I will confirm that your guess about Ven's love interest is very accurate. And I will also say this: while some of Sora's classmates will be brought along for the ride on some of his other-world adventures, who says that it would happen while he's in the middle of class?_**

 ** _To the "Guest" of 7/18/2018, yeah, we've read some of Sword Art Kingdom, and to be honest, I'm really hoping we see some more updates for that series soon, because it is really good, and a nice take on the series._**

 ** _"Twisted Pxl", glad to hear you're still going to be holding an interest in my work, despite knowing that we won't be seeing one without a SoKai pairing any time soon, and that you respect my decisions. That's always especially nice to hear from my readers and followers. As for the matter of Alien l'Cie, I am working on trying to get that out as soon as I can, but considering that I've got a lot of my focus on Kingdom Hearts stories or related titles, like anything involving Final Fantasy and Marvel, it may still be a while, but rest assured, I will try to get it out as soon as possible. Likely after my next update to A Spider's Focus, or even just a little while before that. Regarding your question about what show it would take place in, it would be in the style of Ultimate Alien, and takes place after said series. Omniverse will not have taken place in that story, but we will see some of the aliens from Omniverse; namely the good ones like Gravattack and Feedback._**

 ** _Moving right along to "warrior of six blades", thanks for that little tidbit of info on the Heartless, but for the sake of this story, which is still technically quite the AU, we are most likely going to stick with what Yuffie had explained to everyone. Though that may change later on, given that a lot of what Yuffie knows is really just a theory that she had likely read from Ansem's research notes. Though the Avengers will have something that could potentially help Sora to deal with getting zapped away to another world when they might need him._**

 ** _Iron Man: Hey, here's a couple of good questions from the guy called "Hotshot6"._**

 ** _AN: I'm getting to that, Tony! Ahem, to answer your first question, I most likely will not be including the world of RWBY in this story, as I have not really had the time to really look into that series very much. I'd hate to try my hand at writing something that I barely know anything about and end up with something that basically turns out as crap after all. Regarding your question about why I hate Deadpool..._**

 ** _Deadpool: Which is a mystery in and of itself, if you ask me. [gets blasted out of the room by several large satellite laser canons]_**

 ** _AN:...To keep it as short as I can: the big reason is that he kills people, not only without a care in the world, but he also laughs about it like it's the funniest thing ever. Not to mention he has several other qualities that I find distasteful, disgusting, or just flat out wrong. Plus there are also times when he leaves me feeling really disgusted, creeped out, or disturbed. I'm not saying that there aren't other heroes that are like that, but there's just something about the way Deadpool goes about it all that makes me hate him. You can say that's just me hating him for no reason other than just because, but I don't mind. After all, everyone's got at least one thing that they don't like just because, right?_**

 ** _Rolling it on over to "Guest" of 11/15/2018, I will indeed be trying to get a Stan Lee cameo into this story, as my own way of showing respect for the man who gave us such great marvels of heroes for so many years. RIP Stan the Man._**

 ** _Finally, rounding out the review answers with "Fantasysword92375", the Disney version of Hercules will in fact be replacing the Marvel one in this story, but as far as Venom goes...well, I haven't really put too much thought about whether or not he would be in this story, or even how he would affect any of it. Maybe that will change later on down the line, but only time will tell in that regard. Also, on your guess about Sora's name...sorry, I can't say that in the story. Too big of a spoiler._**

 ** _Wasp: You know, some people would say that's giving the answer away just with you saying that._**

 ** _AN: Said the girl who's once again, not going to another world with Sora._**

 ** _Wasp: [huffs as she crosses her arms and starts grumbling]_**

 ** _AN: Yeah, I think that answers "Spiderfan626"'s question on how happy Janet's going to be about not going to another world again. Like the story didn't already do that. Speaking of which, you've all waited long enough, so let's get on with the show. Pull the lever, Clint!_**

 ** _Hawkeye: [pulls the lever at the manual controls]_**

 ** _AN: [suddenly finds himself in the mouth of a Fishbone Dream Eater that drops down from above him] The other lever, wiseguy._**

 ** _Hawkeye: I know. [grins with a smirk, indicating that was payback for all the times he had been caught in a spoiler-prevention gag and then pulls the other lever]_**

 ** _AN: [grumbles from inside the Fishbone's mouth] Someone get this thing off me while everyone enjoying the story!_**

 ** _I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter VIII**

After his first trip to another world, and the success of his endeavors on that world, the Avengers were all sure that Sora would not be able to contain his excitement. Sure, they knew the kid had some semblance of self-control, but Sora did have a tendency to forget about certain details when something was especially amazing to him, and they were sure that would also include the fact that he was not supposed to bring up the topic of other worlds with just anyone. Thankfully, it turned out that they did not have anything to worry about in that regard. Sure, Sora did not hesitate to tell the story of his and Yuffie's adventure in Atlantis again and again when asked, but he did keep quiet about the whole thing whenever he was outside the mansion, even going so far as to not bring it up or say anything to his friends at Midtown. A lot of them thought it was a sign that Sora was much more mature than they gave him credit for, but they soon found out that there was another reason for his ability to keep it a secret.

It turned out that despite his claims, Sora was not able to get the Keyblade to send him to another world again, even in the case of Atlantis, as Wasp soon learned when she stumbled upon one of his attempts to go back to Atlantis one night after JARVIS told her that he was still awake on a school night. That had led to a meeting where Sora explained that he had tried just about everything to get the Keyblade to teleport him back to Atlantis, or even just any other world out there, but the Kingdom Key had done nothing but sit idly in his palm. This had once again raised everyone's worries about Sora being zapped away to another world right in the middle of something important, because if he could not make it happen willingly, it was going to be hard to keep it from happening at an inopportune time, like when he was in the middle of a fight against a supervillain, or worse, when he was in the middle of class. The last thing that the Avengers needed was having to worry about an entire high school classroom of students suddenly disappearing and ending up on another world with who-knows-what kind of dangers. That thought was what drove Tony, Hank, and Janet to all agree that the kid should be pulled out of school until Sora got a firm handle on that particular Keyblade power. Yuffie was upset when she heard that she still had to go, mainly to help explain the excuse for Sora's extended absence to his teachers and classmates, and she made it known to everyone in the mansion as often as she could, especially in the case of Sora.

Of course, whenever Yuffie did make a mention of how lucky he was to be out of school for a while, Sora was quick to argue that point and say that he was not getting it any easier at the mansion. Since his education was still important, the Avengers had all taken it upon themselves to home-school him, at least in the case of anyone who could do so, and when he was not studying school subjects, he was down in the training room for either practicing his combat skills with Steve and T'Challa, or trying to learn how to keep Kingdom Key from teleporting him to another world without his consent. Needless to say, Sora often had quite a few more bruises at the end of the day after a sparring session with Cap and Panther than he did when he had to attend classes at Midtown, but he did admit that it was cool to have Tony, Hank, and even Banner, when Hulk let him come out, teaching him a lot of cool science stuff. Given that they had all found various ways to apply school subjects that most kids thought were useless in real life in their hero careers, and in their normal lives, none of the three had any problem better explaining any of these things to Sora, or keeping him interested in them long enough for him to take notes and actually learn something without falling asleep. Now if only the same could be said for his history and English lessons with Steve and Janet.

At the moment, Sora was down in the training room, trying to focus on getting the Keyblade to teleport him to another world again, or figure out the exact feeling for when Kingdom Key was about to send him to a world in peril like it did the first time he went to Atlantis. Neither objective was going well for him, and Sora's frustrations were steadily climbing, but not just because of how little success he was having. The other reason was because the only people available to help him with that right now were Thor and Hulk, and it was barely even five minutes before the two were once again battling it out in an attempt to determine which of them was stronger. He was not even sure how it happened this time. One minute they were just casually talking, with the two, big bruisers sitting back as they carefully watched him attempt to teleport to another world, and the next minute, Hulk was roaring loudly as he punched Thor across the room. After that, Sora was forced to work on this with the added stress of avoiding the lightning strikes and flying debris that always seemed to follow when these two went at it, and after nearly getting turned into a pancake for the sixth time, and he was counting, or burnt to a crisp by a stray lightning blast, Sora finally had enough.

"Guys! I thought we were supposed to be helping me get a handle on my Keyblade's ability to teleport me to other worlds, not continuing your little grudge match while I have to run for my life," Sora irritably shouted as loudly as he could, hoping that the two could hear him over the booms and explosions that their battles always seemed to contain. Sadly, it did not seem to work, because the two just kept going, leading Sora to dodge another lightning blast from Mjolnir. "ENOUGH ALREADY WITH THE THUNDER!"

Sora had not realized it at the time, but when he was shouting that last sentence, he was also aiming the Keyblade upwards, and the minute he said that last word, a new blast of lightning came down from out of nowhere and zapped both the combatants. Neither of them was hurt, but they were both left just as surprised by where that last lightning strike had come from as the person who had called it down. "Odin's beard! Sora, you've gained the ability to command lightning magic," Thor gasped. "Truly your powers are growing stronger by the day."

"Yeah, no kidding," Hulk admitted. "This keeps up, and sooner or later, you might even end up getting almost as strong as me and Goldilocks."

"Really? I hadn't noticed," Sora sarcastically remarked. "I mean, it's not like that's the whole reason why were down here in the first place. Oh wait a minute! That is the reason!"

Hulk and Thor had the decency to look sheepish at the boy's frustration, before Thor muttered, "Apologies, my friend. I'm not sure what came over us."

When Hulk mumbled something similar, all of Sora's anger quickly faded away, and drew him to sigh, "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't be snapping at you guys like that. It's just…I'm really getting tired of having to figure out the magic powers that this thing has on my own, and nothing we've tried so far has helped. I know you're something of a magic expert, Thor, but you admitted on our first day at the mansion that you did not really know that much about the topic. Maybe if we knew where to find any of the Keyblade wielders that Fury and everyone else keeps talking about, I'd have better luck."

"Doubtful," Thor admitted. "I have actually spoken with Heimdall on the matter of locating either Terra or Master Aqua very recently, and he told me that even his all-seeing gaze has been unable to find a trace of either of them in the last ten years. It is most perplexing, and seems to have left him rather troubled as well."

"Great," Sora groaned in defeat as he plopped down on the ground. "So where else can we look? It's not like we know of any great trainers or teachers that know all about this stuff who can help me."

Hulk scratched his chin in thought about that before he revealed. "I may not know anyone who can help with everything involved with your Keyblade, but I do know someone who might be able to help with your magic a little bit. An old friend that Banner and I ran into a while back while we were on the run from Ross and SHIELD. I could try and give him a call for you if you'd like."

Sora just nodded in thanks to the Hulk, feeling a little too tired all of a sudden to really say or do much more than that, but before anyone could make any moves to leave the training room, the Keyblade suddenly jumped into Sora's hand again, and seemed to pull him up to his feet before the tip of the blade suddenly began to glow. "Uh-oh," Sora muttered, recognizing this particular glow in an instant. "I think the Keyblade's about to teleport me to another world."

"Try to hold it off until we've summoned the other Avengers," Thor commanded while reaching for the ID card in his belt.

"I think it might be a little too late for that," Hulk growled as the light from the Keyblade grew brighter.

"Here we go again," Sora shouted before the whole room was eclipsed in the Keyblade's light, and a moment later, the three had all vanished from Avengers Mansion, just as Yuffie and Sora had a few days ago when they were transported off to Atlantis. This time though, JARVIS managed to recognize this fact, and immediately informed the other Avengers of the three's sudden departure, giving Tony and T'Challa their cue to start analyzing the readings from the Keyblade that the AI had picked up at that point to see if there was some way that they could find a temporary solution for their young friend until he learned how to control the sudden trips on his own. They were just going to have to wait for the three to get back before they could tell him about any ideas they came up with, or even think of testing them.

* * *

When the light died down enough for the three to be able to see again, they found themselves in a place that was far different from where Sora and Yuffie had landed when they traveled to Atlantis. For one thing, the sun was shining brightly in a clear sky, and there was a large mountain towering over everything for miles. The area they were standing in looked to be the courtyard for a large building, and the entrance was flanked by a pair of statues that depicted two gladiators crossing swords with one and other. Looking around, they quickly spotted a few large boards that listed out several names, all of which had the names of what sounded like events, such as Pegasus Cup, Zeus Cup, and so on. On the doors both into the building, and out into the courtyard, there was also an emblem depicting a lightning bolt striking out from a cloud. The whole place was definitely something to behold, and for some reason, Hulk and Sora felt like there was some kind warrior waiting around every corner, though they could not explain how they could have known that.

Thor on the other hand did seem to know, as he started to grin in excitement at where the Keyblade had brought them. "Odin's beard," the Asgardian cheered. "We've been transported to Olympus Coliseum!"

"You know this place, Goldilocks," Hulk asked.

"Verily," Thor eagerly nodded. "My family and I visited this world many times while I was growing up. We're good friends of the rulers of this world, and like many other warriors of Asgard, I enjoyed participating in the Games."

"Games," Sora repeated. "What games?"

" _The_ Games. A variety of tournaments that pitted the greatest of warriors and beasts against one another in an effort to determine who was mightiest, most worthy, and the truest of heroes," Thor explained. "Even I myself have participated in the games, and if I recall correctly, in one of my previous visits, I saw that Master Aqua and Terra had also competed and proved victorious in the games as well."

"Whoa! Sounds awesome," Sora grinned excitedly. Already he could feel his competitive nature beginning to ignite, because if there was one thing that Sora enjoyed, and that he shared with Hulk and Thor, it was a good chance to show he was the best fighter in the room. The only difference between the two bruisers and Sora was that he knew when the time and place for such things was, and right now, he knew that while this was most likely the place, it most definitely was not the right time. Upon remembering this, Sora quickly shook his head and said, "Doesn't matter though. We've gotta figure out what's wrong and then get back as soon as possible."

"What? Too chicken to try and enter one of these tournaments, Spiky," Hulk taunted, clearly eager to sign up for said competition.

"No. I just don't think this is the best time to be getting into the middle of a tournament when I can't fully control all of my powers, and there's also the fact that the Keyblade had brought us here for a reason. A reason that most likely has to do with the Heartless," Sora immediately reminded the big guy.

"Or perhaps there is another reason besides that," Thor offered. "This world is also known to be the home of many great heroes, and the great Philoctetes, the trainer of heroes. There could be a chance that the Keyblade brought us here so that you could receive some lessons from him, and learn better control over your growing powers, Friend Sora. And who knows? The Games may be an excellent training ground for you to improve your abilities in as well."

Sora was not as stupid as some people thought he was. He knew what Thor was actually doing from the moment he saw the gleam of excitement in the Asgardian's eyes. The blonde was hoping to enter the Games the moment that they had arrived in Olympus Coliseum, and it was apparent that the big guy wanted to do the same, since it would mean that the two could have another go at determining which of them was stronger. This was just another tactic in getting Sora to agree for them to sign up. Not that Sora really needed too much convincing, because he was already trying to stop himself from running into the arena lobby and signing up for one of the tournaments himself, but he was not going to just drop everything else for some silly fighting games when there was a chance that there could be Heartless lurking around any and every corner of this world. Still, he had to admit that Thor did have a point. If this Philoctetes could train Sora in order to help him better improve his abilities, then why not at least talk to the guy? After all, he was just saying that having a great trainer might help him to improve a lot more quickly not more than a few minutes ago, and if Terra and Aqua had been here, maybe Philoctetes picked up on a few tips from seeing them in action.

In the end, Sora could tell that he had been backed into a tight spot. It was either ignore this chance and just worry about the Heartless, or go with Thor and Hulk so that they could sign up for the Games while he spoke with Philoctetes to see if the trainer of heroes could help him to improve his control over the Keyblade's powers. Meaning, no matter what he did, there was a good chance that some, if not all three of them were going to be going into the arena, and knowing Hulk and Thor, Sora had a hunch that they were going to go in there with or without him, no matter what he said. These two and their rivalry was starting to become something that was hardly ever containable or controllable, after all, so it would probably be better if Sora made sure to go with them, just to make sure that they did not get into any trouble, or at least, not too much trouble. In short, these two had Sora beat in this argument.

"Okay, fine," Sora finally conceded. "We'll go talk to this Philoctetes guy, ask him if he knows anything to help me improve my abilities with the Keyblade, and sign you guys up for the Games."

"What? You don't want to compete too," Hulk asked.

"Against you two? No way," Sora immediately refused. "I don't have a death wish."

"Your loss," Thor shrugged. "But then again, you would likely get in the way of one of us."

"Thanks a lot, Thor. That makes me feel so much better," Sora grumbled under his breath before he followed the other two inside.

What the three Avengers did not know was that someone had been watching them from the moment that they had appeared in the courtyard, and after they had disappeared into the lobby, he decided to make himself known. The individual in question was a towering man with pale grey skin and blue flames for hair, with glowing yellow eyes and decked out in a long, black robes. If you came from this world, then you would know him as Hades, the Lord of the Dead, ruler of the Underworld, and most importantly, the sworn enemy of the greatest hero that Olympus Coliseum had ever known. It was actually the latter fact that had brought Hades up from his dark, vile kingdom, and the reminder of that fact only strengthened his anger of knowing that Hercules still lived the minute he saw a little announcement about the latest tournament to be hosted at the coliseum.

"'Enter now for a chance to face off with the greatest example of strength, gallantry, and true heroism,'" Hades read before his whole body erupted into red and orange flames to showcase his boiling anger to all. "Oh he's a great example of something alright. The perfect example of what is so INFURIATING! HE DRIVES ME CRAZY! JUST THINKING ABOUT THAT LITTLE SUNSPOT MAKES ME BOIL!" A huge plume of flames erupted upwards into the sky above Hades upon finishing that last statement, before he finally cooled down into his normal state, and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Okay, fine, fine. I'm cool. Fine. There's no need to get all worked up. After all, Key-kid and his pals are here, along with the premiere golden boy of Asgard, so all I've gotta do, is let loose a few little monsters and my ace in the hole, and I'll get three, no four harpies with one stone. Still, better let a certain someone know about this."

With a wave of his hand, Hades then sent out a magic signal to the council of villains, and barely seconds later, Loki appeared in the courtyard beside him. "This had better be important, Hades. I was just in the midst of checking in on Enchantress and Night Hunter to see how their respective missions are going," the Asgardian rogue cautioned.

"Loki, old buddy, old pal, my absolute _favorite_ Asgardian! Have I got news for you," Hades happily greeted. "Guess who just showed up on my doorstep. Huh? Come on, guess." When Loki remained silent, Hades just shrugged and said, "All right, you don't want to guess? That's cool. I'll just tell ya anyway. The Keyblade's chosen just popped in, and with the big green guy and your dear, brute of a brother in tow."

"Really," Loki smirked in intrigue. "Thor, the boy, and that rage monster are here? Right now? And knowing my brother, I can only assume that he's somehow managed to talk them all into entering the Games, am I wrong?"

"Got it right on the money there, pal," Hades confirmed. "I mean, talk about golden opportunities. We may not even need to wait for your big finale plan. We can just take out Thor and the kid right here and now, and we can do it while I'm bringing down Irk-ules."

"Yes, it would seem like quite the promising opportunity," Loki agreed with a sinister smirk. "While I would prefer to see my oafish brother finished in person, I will not deny that the sooner we end his interference, the better. Though I am a little skeptical about whether or not your plan to end Hercules will follow through, Hades. After all, your plans haven't really been all that…successful in the past."

"Oh, like you're one to talk. Remind me, how many times have you been hit in the head by that hammer of Thor's," Hades countered.

"At least none of my plans relied upon the whims of a mere mortal woman, while ignoring the fact she was becoming enthralled with the target of my vengeance," Loki argued, pointing out the major flaw of one of Hades's earlier schemes.

"Oh no, you just rely on the Asgardian Blondie who's obsessed with him on a creepy, stalker level, but can't get the time of day from the guy since he's got eyes for that nurse or the warrior goddess. Remind me again, how did that little scheme of cutting off Sif's hair end up going for you again," Hades retaliated in kind.

Loki took a moment to cool off at that point, and just shrugged as he said, "If anything, Sif should be thanking me for doing her a favor. Now she can make it more believable that she isn't a dumb blonde who's compensating for something by swinging around that sword of hers."

Both villainous gods laughed at the trickster's joke, until Hades calmed down again and said, "Well, either way, we can both acknowledge that we've made some mistakes, but this time, I've got a real winner, and a real piece of work who'll get the job done, with ending Hercules, the Keyblade's chosen, and his little friends in one, easy swoop."

"I don't think I need to remind you of the specific reason as to why you hired me, do I," a new voice interrupted, pulling the two's attention from each other, and over to the "piece of work" that Hades had been referring to just seconds ago. The person in question was a young man who appeared to be about eighteen to twenty years of age, possessed dark hair and blue eyes, which seemed to flicker with specks of red every so often, and every bit of his clothing was about as dark as his hair color. Everything from his shirt and jacket, to his pants and boots, to even the fingerless glove he wore on his left hand were all varying shades of black or dark grey, but what would really throw some people off would be the cool, calculating appearance he held in both his eyes and his stance that would give the impression of either being one of high authority, or just one who was aloof and highly withdrawn from those around him.

"And speak of the devil, or should I say speak of the prince," Hades started to say.

"That's king. I stopped being a prince the day my father died," the youth evenly corrected.

"Oh, right. The whole fall of Insomnia thing, with the soldiers, and the betrayal, and all that other jazz. I'd give my deepest condolences, but ya know, Lord of the Dead and everything. Seeing dead people is part of the job for me and all," Hades nodded in as close to an apology as he could honestly manage, which was saying something considering who he was. "Anyways, Loki, old buddy, allow me to introduce you to our ace in the hole: Nocty-Boy."

"It's Noctis. Noctis Lucis Caelum," the young king growled in a second correction. "The closest thing to a nickname that anyone can use with me is Noct, and only my friends are allowed to call me that."

"Right, right, whatever, kid," Hades brushed off, not the least bit phased by Noctis's irritation. "Anyways, don't worry. I haven't forgotten the deal. Just make sure you hold up your end of the bargain, and take out Hercules, the brat with the Keyblade, and those other two that just showed up with said brat."

Noctis just glanced at the door that Sora and his friends had disappeared through, and then said, "You're telling me that the great god of the Underworld is scared of a kid? The two bigger guys I can understand, but a kid? Sorry, but my contract says…"

"I know! You think I don't know? I wrote the contract," Hades raged before Noctis could finish. "I know it says you're only supposed to kill Hercules in the upcoming tournament if you want me to help you out, but guess what, with those three entering, you'll now have to fight them to get to him." When Noctis did not seem to change his opinion in the slightest, Hades just sighed and said, "All right, here's what: with their arrival, the contract just got a new amendment to it, so now, you've gotta get rid of those three as well if you want my help with anything. So guess what, you don't kill them _and_ Hercules, and you can kiss any chances of finding your pals and your girl goodbye. You don't want that, do you?"

That earned Hades a bit more of a reaction from Noctis, because the young king immediately fixed a glare on Hades while faint shards of light seemed to dance between his fingers for a minute, while the red sparks in his eyes seemed to grow in number. It did not last long though, as Noctis quickly took a deep breath to calm himself, and grounded out, "Fine, I'll do it, but don't even think about backing out on the deal or double crossing me. I've dealt with a trying jester once before, and he found out just what happens when you try my patience."

At any other time, Hades likely would have burned the young man alive for his insult, but at the moment, the Lord of the Dead needed Noctis, so he had to just let it slide and seethe in silence as the king of Insomnia marched into the coliseum lobby. Loki on the other hand, had no problem letting his thoughts be known, even if he did wait until Noctis was out of ear-shot. "Quite the charming young pawn you've found, old friend," the trickster sighed in annoyance.

"You're telling me. I swear, the kid's even duller or just flat out stiffer than the stiffs back home at times," Hades grumbled. He then smirked a little when he added, "Still, suckers like him are hard to come by."

"And just what of this…bargain, you've made with him. Do you intend to uphold it," Loki inquired, honestly curious if Hades would or even could own up to his end of that particular deal.

"Oh come on, Loki. You know I'm a god of my word," Hades scoffed in reply, like it should have been obvious. "I said I was going to help him figure out where his friends and his lady were. I never said that I was gonna give him anything too exact, or that I would actually know where to look for them. Besides, his home was lost to the Heartless ages ago, like the worlds of all the rest of those shmucks who ended up in that one border world, Traveler's City, or whatever it's called. If they aren't there, then who knows where they could be. Not that he needs to know that just yet."

Loki could not help it. He just had to let out a sinister chuckle along with Hades upon hearing that. "Now that is why you are my favorite Olympian immortal," Loki praised. "You know just how to sucker others without breaking your word."

"Naturally," Hades nodded along. "But then again, you should know, considering I taught you a lot of what I know in that regard, and after you became the best at it, I learned a few new tricks from you."

The two gods continued in their shared laughter, both very entertained by the blind faith that Noctis had put into Hades, and at the thought of the upcoming show that they would soon receive. Not that you could blame them, because in the end, as far as they could tell, no matter who won that tournament, these two were going to be the only ones obtaining any prizes, while the other heroes wound up with nothing but a trip to the realm of the dead.

* * *

What the three Avengers had thought was the door to the lobby, actually turned out to be the door to the arena where the preliminary matches was housed, and as a result, they had inadvertently placed themselves into the rankings of competitors who were trying to complete said matches by entering when they did. Not that any of them were complaining, mind you. Thor and Hulk both actually laughed a little as they bashed, smashed, and blasted many of the opponents who dared to try and challenge them, and even went so far as to keep score on which of them had managed to take down the most opponents. Sora, on the other hand, had a small panic attack when he realized where they had ended up, but it barely lasted for more than a minute, as he had soon joined in on blasting and slashing his way through the preliminaries, and on the shared laughter of his friends soon after. In another situation, someone might think that three were a bit crazy, laughing it up as they fought against a large number of foes, but considering that this was all in good fun as part of a competition, no one could blame them for enjoying themselves. To be honest, Sora actually kind of wished that some of the other Avengers were here right now to either see the three of them in action, or to join in on the fun. He was actually a little curious to see who would win in a fight between Yuffie and T'Challa, or Steve and T'Challa, or even Yuffie and Steve.

Beyond the stunning surprise entrance of the three Avengers, the preliminary matches were not much to talk about, as most of it was really just a simple obstacle course that no one really seemed able to finish due to it being really difficult, or because of how the competitors were apparently allowed to battle it out with each other in an effort to slow the others down. By the time that the three Avengers had finally gotten through the whole course, they had realized that they were the only ones left standing, and that had left Thor and Hulk in a bit of a sour mood, as they both grumbled about how there was so little of a challenge on this course. Sora had to agree with them on that, as the course did seem like it was not that much more difficult than the ones that he and Riku had run through on some of their races back on the islands, but the fighters that they faced off with were at least somewhat of a challenge, at least for him. Then again, he was not as much of a powerhouse as Hulk and Thor, even though he knew that he had the potential to be one someday soon, so he could understand why they found so little challenge in the preliminaries.

All of that was an aside for now, as they had more pressing matters now that they had entered the lobby, and judging by the fact that there was only one other person in the room, it seemed that the man they had to talk to was actually a satyr. "Hey kid," the satyr said before any of the three could even open their mouths. "I know you're eager and hoping that one of these decathlon shmucks will actually make it in, but from the sound of things out there, I wouldn't hold my breath. If anything, we may have to cancel the Games. Not much of a tournament if there's only one or two competitors."

"Seriously? No one else made it through that course," Sora exclaimed in mild surprise.

Hearing the kid speak made the satyr pause in his work before he turned to face the people he was addressing, and he immediately figured out his mistake. "Oh. Sorry, thought you were someone else," the satyr apologized. "What're you yahoos doing here? This here's the world famous coliseum. Heroes only."

"I was not aware that such a rule had been added since my last visit," Thor lightly protested. "Though if you consider those warriors we faced outside to be heroes, I cannot help but question your judgment, old friend."

Hearing the Asgardian speak made the satyr start beaming a little more as he faced Thor and said, "Well if it ain't Asgard's golden boy himself. Been too long, kid, and it looks like you really hit quite the growth spurt since the last time I saw ya. Then again, Herc hit a huge growth spurt of his own in that time, so maybe it's just something about you gods or demigods."

"You know this puny little goat man, Goldilocks," Hulk asked.

"Aye, Friend Hulk. This is the very trainer of heroes that I was telling you and Sora about earlier: the great Philoctetes."

"This guy is Philoctetes," Sora asked in disbelief.

"Call me Phil," the satyr told him, and as a result he was pulled into a particularly powerful handshake by Sora. "WHOA!"

"Boy am I glad to meet you," Sora practically cheered. "I'm Sora, and this is Hulk."

When Phil pulled his hand back from Sora, he turned to get a good look at Hulk, and did not seem all that intimidated at first, even as he said, "Well, you're big. And green."

"Got a problem with that," Hulk growled.

"Buddy, I've seen way bigger than you and in a lot of different colors too. If I had a problem with anything, it would be the lifestyle I've had to take on by training all the would-be heroes that came knocking on my door," Phil revealed. That earned him a small smile from Hulk before he turned back to Sora and asked, "So why would you want to see me, kid? If you're looking for some training, then you're outta luck. I'm retired from that kind of thing."

"But you might be the only person who can help me get a better handle on how to use the Keyblade, and I really need to learn how to control those powers better if I want to really help my friends or not get zapped to another world at a bad time," Sora protested, forgetting for a moment that other worlds were supposed to be a secret when he did.

Apparently, that was not the surprising part to Phil, because when he paused and looked at Sora again, the first thing he asked was, "You're a Keyblade wielder? Like Terra, Aqua, and Ven?"

"Indeed, Phil," Thor nodded with a bit of pride. "Young Sora is the newest wielder of the Keyblade, and despite his lack of experience, he has proven himself to be a mighty warrior in battle, and to be one of great, noble character as well."

Phil was silent for a moment as he appeared to process what he just heard, before he finally said. "Prove it. Let's see the key itself and maybe a magic spell or two."

Sora was a little hesitant about just showing off what little magic he could actually do, but after getting an encouraging nod from Thor, he was raising his hand up and summoning out Kingdom Key for all to see, leaving Phil shocked at the sight. Getting so much as one spell out was a little harder, but he did still manage to cast Blizzard once again after a few tries. Still, the fact he had struggled to cast a spell had left Phil a little less impressed. "This is part of the reason why we are here, Phil," Thor admitted. "Sora needs whatever wisdom you can provide him in order to gain a greater mastery over his newly unlocked magical abilities."

Phil stroked his chin in thought, before he muttered, "Well…I don't know…"

"Aw come on, Phil. Please," Sora pleaded.

"Look, kid, I would if I could, really, but I've got my hands full at the moment running things here at the coliseum these days," Phil admitted. "And with the Games going right now, I've got even less free time for making sure the champ is staying in shape. I swear, if it weren't for me and how I've drilled a lot of stuff into him over the years building up to his ascension to true hero status, I'm sure that dame of his would probably have him slacking off every minute of the day."

"Didn't you just say that you were probably going to have to cancel the Games though," Sora pointed out.

"Well yeah, but it's not my fault that no one else can get through that preliminary round," Phil shrugged. When he noticed Thor giving him a bit of a look, Phil had to shrug and admit, "Okay, so I did set up the course, and maybe, _just_ maybe, it was a bit more difficult than I had thought it might be, but it's definitely not my fault that these rookies we've been getting in here lately don't have what it takes."

"Humph. It wasn't that tough. I got through it pretty easily, and even Spiky and Goldilocks were able to make it," Hulk huffed in dismissal.

"Wait, what," Phil gasped in surprise. "You guys went through and beat the course?!"

"Um…We may have taken a wrong turn in our attempt to get here, and gone through…by accident," Thor nervously revealed as he drummed his fingers against Mjolnir.

"Well why didn't you say so in the first place," Phil demanded. "I mean, the runt may not look all that promising…"

"Hey," Sora snapped, knowing Phil was talking about him.

"But you, Thor! Ho-ho, you and this big guy here, are definitely what I'd call prime candidates for giving these people a great show and proving your metal as heroes in the Games," Phil continued on, either not acknowledging Sora, or just pretending like he had not heard the kid.

Hulk smiled a little at hearing Phil call him a hero, mainly because it still felt really good to hear people honestly say that about him, but it was hidden behind the excited smirk on his face for a chance to get into this tournament. "Hey, I've been looking for a good challenge anyway. Kicking around Goldilocks while he thinks he can knock me down gets boring after a while," Hulk shrugged like it was no big deal.

"I do far more than just think, my friend," Thor fired back with the usual, challenging look of confidence that he always had whenever Hulk mentioned one of their spars. "Though I would not recommend writing off Sora just yet, Phil. As I said before, he has proven himself a mighty warrior."

Phil hummed in thought before he finally seemed to take Thor's word for it, and said, "All right then, you're all in. Besides, with four competitors in the Games, counting the champ, the crowd won't be bored."

"You may want to count again. The Games have a fifth competitor that was able to get through your preliminary," a new voice interrupted, turning the four's attention to the entrance, just in time to see a young man in all-black step through with a sword in one hand. The youth glanced at the three Avengers for barely more than a second until his eyes came to rest on Sora. Seeing that the mystery man was staring at him so intently, Sora could not help but meet his gaze with a steady one of his own, feeling like he was being measured up somehow. It was more than that though, because somehow, he got the sense that this guy was trying to figure out something else about him, like there was something about Sora that the guy found familiar. When he finally turned back to Phil, Sora was a little unsure as to whether or not the guy found it, but that was not high on the list of important matters for now. "My name is Noctis, and I'm here to compete in the Games."

"And just how did you get through the prelims," Phil asked, clearly thinking that Noctis was not all that impressive looking. The young man's answer was quickly starting to change that idea though.

"Very easily," Noctis replied, and though his tone was even as he gave the simple answer, there was a dangerous undercurrent to it that sent shivers up everyone's spines. It was not exactly the chill one would get from an evil villain, but there was no denying that the way Noctis had spoken just now was meant to imply that one should not cross him, carelessly, if they wanted to survive to see another day.

Hearing Noctis's reply and seeing the intense glare that the young man was giving out was enough to make Phil decide it would be better for his and everyone else's health if he did not question how Noctis made it through the prelims until later on, so the satyr decide to just move things along, and asked that everyone form a line in front of him so that he could explain the rules and layout of the main event. "Alright, everyone listen up, because I don't want to have to explain the rules of this tournament more than once," the satyr began. "First thing ya gotta know, this tournament is run like an obstacle course. The goal is to get through any and all obstacles and over the finish line first. These obstacles can be anything from some fancy traps and surprises, to even a few monsters that are similar to ones you may have seen around here lately. Don't worry, they're not the real things, just a few recreations of those monsters created by the coliseum's magic. Whoever makes it over the finish line, and manages to remain in good shape, will enter into a final, battle royale with the champ himself that any of the other competitors can enter if they cross the finish line in a similar state."

"What if we cross the finish line and we're in no shape to fight," Sora asked.

"Well then, you're out. The Games end for you right there, and if you think that you'll just be able to put up a front despite being too hurt or tired to continue, then think again, because I'll be the one that has the final say on whether or not you can keep going," Phil replied. When he saw that the kid was going to protest, he immediately countered, "Being a true hero means ya gotta be able to keep going and keep getting back up, while knowing when you're too hurt to do so. This little tournament makes that very clear to any who enter, because you never know when you might have to pull out in order to make sure you can fight another day, or when someone you know realizes that you can't keep going without killing yourself and pulls you out for the same reason."

No one could argue with that point, and from what Phil could see, they all agreed with him, too. Even Noctis seemed to acknowledge this as fact, if the far away, nostalgic look he developed was any indication, but from where Sora was standing, there was also a sense of sadness in Noctis's eyes, and it made Sora wonder just why Noctis would be so sad at the memory of his friends. At least until he came to one conclusion that stood out more than any other. _"Is he…like me? Separated from his friends and with no way to find or get back to them,"_ Sora wondered to himself. He had to put it aside though, as Phil still had a few rules to go over.

"Now, when you're out there, you'll be allowed to use any method you have at your disposal to get through the course. You can even attack other competitors if you think it'll get you ahead, but if that does happen, I don't want to see or hear of anyone taking cheap shots of any kind, and I'm sure you _fellas_ all know what I mean by taking cheap shots," Phil informed them, and from the extra emphasis he put on the word "fellas," they were all able to figure out exactly what he was referring to. "Moving along, you're also not allowed to carry any items like potions, ethers, or anything else that can heal you, so you'll have to rely on whatever healing methods or spells you do know, and nothing else. Any attempt at using a potion or any other kind of thing like that will result in an automatic disqualification. Final rule: everyone's gotta give it everything they got!"

"That doesn't sound like much of a rule so much as a statement," Noctis muttered, not knowing that the Avengers all agreed with his sentiment.

"Any questions," Phil asked.

"Yeah. Can we get this started? I can't wait to show just what I've got," Sora stated, finally admitting that he was just as excited about entering this tournament as Thor and Hulk were, much to the smirking entertainment of the two bruisers in question.

"Nope, you've gotta wait a little bit," Phil denied.

"How come," Sora asked.

"Two words: Everyone. Needs. To rest. First," Phil sounded out.

Hulk could not help but count out the actual words that Phil had spoken on one hand, despite knowing that it was definitely more than two, which prompted Thor to say, "He does that a lot. He may be a great trainer of heroes, but I don't think it was ever due to his mathematical skills."

While Hulk could only nod in response to Thor, Phil still had his attention on Sora as he explained, "You can't give it everything you've got if you're not rested enough, and no one comes to the games to see the competitors slouch their way through the competition like they haven't slept in days. Hence the reason why we've got a thirty minute rest period between the end of the preliminaries and the start of the main competition."

Sora could see the reasoning behind that, so he just nodded and moved to find some place to rest up a bit. After hearing Phil mention a lack of rest, he did have to acknowledge he was feeling a little tired after that unexpected run through the preliminary course. What he did not expect was for Noctis to suddenly hold out a canteen of water to him, though all the while, never actually looking at him. "Take it," Noctis said. "You look like you could use a little drink."

"Uh…thanks," Sora nodded as he slowly accepted the canteen. He was not so eager to drink right away though, since he was not sure if Noctis had put something in it before hand or not.

Noctis must have realized this, because he smiled a little bit and said, "Don't worry. There's nothing in there besides water. I can always take a few sips first if you want me to prove it to you."

Sora just shrugged at that, deciding to take Noctis's word for it, and quickly swallowed a few gulps of water before returning the canteen to its owner, and then decided that he just had to ask the young man about himself. "So, how come you're entering the games?"

Noctis's friendly expression fell into a much more closed-off and hardened one, as he replied, "Personal reasons. That's all you need to know."

It was surprising that Noctis was just shut himself off so quickly, and Sora likely would have tried to press on in an attempt to get the guy to open up, but something about how the air around Noctis had suddenly grown cold made the wielder of Kingdom Key think better of it. So instead, Sora just shrugged and moved along, never knowing that Noctis was watching after him in an attempt to figure out how the kid could be such a threat to Hades or his friend in the green outfit and weird, horned helmet. From what the young king could tell, the boy was harmless enough, but then again, he of all people knew just how deceiving first appearances can be, so he made a note to keep a close eye on the kid once the tournament started.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, the main event had begun, and the four had raced into the arena, with Hulk and Thor taking an early lead. Noctis was not too far behind them, but that quickly changed, much to the two's surprise, as he seemed to suddenly teleport a short distance ahead of them after throwing a sword into the path before them. It was shocking to be certain, but neither the Asgardian nor the gamma-powered hero was going to question it right now. They were determined to make it through this course, no matter whom or what stood in their path. Any traps that they encountered were brushed aside as easily as the ones that they found in Avengers Mansion's training room, so the only thing they really bothered with fighting were the monsters, which turned out to be various recreations of the Heartless. Seeing the dark creatures in the ring left them a little apprehensive at first, but after remembering what Phil had said, all concern had quickly left them. All the while, their young friend was having problems of his own.

Despite his best efforts, Sora had actually had a very slow start, and it did not seem like he was going to be gaining any ground any time soon. Between Hulk's ability to jump great distances, Thor's flight, and Noctis's apparent teleportation powers, Sora was just not able to keep up as well. Sure, he probably could have used the Keyblade Glider, but he was not sure if that would count as cheating or not and there was also the fact that he could barely control the thing too well to consider, too. Besides, Thor was only getting airborne for a few short bursts of time, so Sora did have good reason to believe that he could not just bypass the obstacles so he could reach the finish line faster. Despite his competitive nature making him more than a little annoyed with how badly he was getting left in the dust, Sora's problems in keeping up were not his biggest concern.

What really bothered the Keybearer was the Heartless that were appearing in the arena. Even though Phil had said that the monsters that appeared here were just recreations, there was something about them that gave Sora a bad feeling, much like the kind of feelings he would get whenever he encountered the Heartless before. The fact that so many seem to come after him at once several times made Sora all the more sure that these Heartless were not just some kind of magical recreations, but the real thing. Add in the fact that he was getting swarmed by so many different types of Heartless at once most of the time, all of which being types that he had encountered before, and Sora's theory only made even more sense in his mind. Still, he did not let that stop him. If he was going to get through this and prove to Phil that he did have what it took to be a hero, then Sora had to get through no matter what, so he charged right into every fight, Keyblade in hand, and slashed his way through every dark creature that dared to cross him. There were a few times when he did manage to successfully cast a spell or two to aid in his efforts, but for the most part, he stuck to just using the Keyblade to slice and dice the various dark creatures coming after him until he finally reached an open area of the course where he felt that he could safely catch his breath for a little bit.

At least Sora thought it was safe, until he looked up and saw Noctis standing in the very same field, looking none the worse for wear and completely calm. In an instant, Sora was on guard once more, remembering that Phil said interfering with your opponent was allowed, and there was a good chance that the older boy was planning to try and sabotage him. That is, Sora was thinking that until Noctis glanced over at him and asked in an almost bored sounding voice, "What're you doing?"

"Uh…getting ready to defend myself from your attack," Sora hesitantly replied.

"Well then I guess it's a good thing I'm not planning to attack you," Noctis remarked, much to Sora's confusion. "I'm just taking a chance to rest up, same as you. Though if you wanted to, you could use this opportunity to get ahead of me and get to the finish line. I think your friends are almost there now."

"Oh…uh…okay then," Sora slowly nodded, and he quickly started to make his way forward again. When he walked past Noctis without any incident, he immediately started thinking something was very wrong though, and he quickly turned back to ask, "Are you sure you're okay with me just taking off like this?"

"Sure. It's not like it matters either way. All the rest of you are going to end up dead no matter what," Noctis shrugged. The only thing that was more disturbing than that sentence though was how nonchalant he sounded when he said it, and that probably rattled Sora more than anything else.

"W-what do you mean by that," Sora gasped.

"Exactly what it sounds like," Noctis said, apparently not knowing that you should not announce an evil plan to the heroes unless you wanted to be stopped. "Once you all expend your energies fighting each other in your little tournament, I'll be the one to swoop in and finish the job, sending you, your friends, and the mighty champion of Olympus Coliseum straight to the Underworld." At that point, a loud boom echoed through the arena, no doubt coming from where the final stage of the Games was, leading Noctis to comment, "And from the sound of things, I don't think I'll have too much to worry about, since they've already started."

"Why…why would you want to do something like that," Sora asked. "I thought you were just competing in the Games for the same reasons as all the rest of us."

"You thought wrong. This isn't just a game for me," Noctis revealed, but it was clear that he did not intend to say more than that. An instant later, a strange, one-handed sword with various mechanical parts attached to it appeared in Noctis's hand in a burst of crystals, much like how the Keyblade often appeared into Sora's hand in a flash of light. "You can't save yourself or your friends, kid. Not so long as I've got to do this job, but if you decide to give up now, I'll try to make it quick and painless for you at least."

For what seemed like quite a long while, Sora just stared back at Noctis, not saying anything, but not giving any other indications as to what his answer would be either, and though he probably would not admit it, part of Noctis was actually a little worried that he might have pushed the kid a little too hard, or just scared him stiff. Both ideas was soon abolished though, as Sora finally narrowed his eyes at Noctis in anger before dropping into a battle stance, with Keyblade coming into his hand, while he practically growled, "There's no way I'm ever gonna give up without a fight. Besides, you just made a very huge mistake."

"And what would that be," Noctis asked, honestly more curious than he was intimidated by Sora's sudden change in attitude.

"No one and I mean no one threatens my friends," Sora shouted, and before Noctis knew it, the boy had charged him with a mighty swing directed for his head.

In that instant, Noctis was quickly placing himself on defense, parrying or blocking every single sword strike that Sora threw out, but he was having a hard time keeping up at first, given how fast the strikes were coming. His surprise was eventually shaken off though, and he managed to slip away from Sora's next strike so fast that he left a faint afterimage in his wake, much to the Keybearer's shock. Noctis then took his chance to attack, and was soon laying several quick and powerful strikes of his own into Sora, coming at him from multiple angles at varying intervals, and preventing Sora from finding a pattern to Noctis's attacks. That did not keep Sora down for long, as he was able to at least block a good number of Noctis's attacks, and soon found a chance to roll clear of the other man's range of attack. Upon spinning around, Sora aimed the Keyblade directly at Noctis, hoping against hope that he would be able to call upon a spell that would blast the older man back a little further so that he had some more distance, but before he could even think of a spell, Noctis had banished his sword back to wherever it came from, and switched it out for a pistol that he immediately fired several rounds from.

"You didn't think that my Engine Blade was the only weapon I commanded, did you," Noctis rhetorically asked while dismissing the gun for a pair of daggers, before he charged Sora again.

Sora was quickly dodging left and right, calling upon every bit of skill that he had learned from Yuffie, T'Challa, and even Steve in order to keep ahead of the quick jabs and stabs that Noctis was now throwing at him, but eventually, he found that he had to dismiss the Keyblade so that he could better avoid Noctis's attacks. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake on Sora's part, as he was left with no way to defend himself when Noctis suddenly switched out his daggers for a large, greatsword, which Noctis did not seem to have too much trouble wielding, given how fast he spun around as he prepared to cleave Sora in two with the massive blade. It was only by a crazy miracle or dumb luck that Sora had managed to dive to the side in time to avoid being either cut in two or bashed in the head with the massive thing, but he did still end up receiving a blow to the head when Noctis swapped out his weapon again, this time replacing it with a polearm, the blunt end of which had been the part to hit Sora.

It took Sora a minute to shake out the cobwebs from that last blow, but by the time he did, he was resummoning the Keyblade in order to deflect several different arrows that were fired out from an auto crossbow that Noctis had switched over to after dismissing his polearm. When a pause in the rain of arrows finally came, Sora took his chance to turn his Keyblade on Noctis again, not even thinking too much as he called upon the power of his uncontrollable magic, and blasted the dark-clothed man with a burst of Blizzard. The ice shards that Sora shot out missed its mark due to Noctis dodging at the last second in the same way that he had before when he needed to get out of Sora's initial barrage, but Sora did not let that deter him for too long, as he was soon casting a blast of fire magic that was sure to hit Noctis. The stunned look on Noctis's face as the fireball closed in on him made Sora think that he might have gotten him with that attack, but after the blast had struck and the smoke cleared, Sora was shocked to see that Noctis had once again switched weapons and blocked his attack with a triangular shield.

"Okay, how many different weapons do you have? This is just getting ridiculous," Sora groaned upon seeing Noctis dismiss the shield for his initial sword once more.

"Said the boy who wears shoes that look like they were made for jesters," Noctis quipped in easy retort.

That got a very heated glare from Sora, while his Keyblade seemed to glow with a new energy and he shouted, "Don't. Ever. Say. I wear clown shoes!"

A minute later, Sora had rushed Noctis again, but this time at a speed that Noctis had not seen before, and he was soon raising his sword in defense again. He managed to parry Sora's blow, but what Noctis did not expect was that the boy would immediately spin around and charge him again, and again, and several more times over, ultimately getting past his guard, even when he had switched out his sword for a proper shield. When Sora came to brief halt behind him, Noctis only caught a glimpse of a faint, glow of light before the kid charged one last time, with a powerful strike of his blade following in the wake of his charge. After the kid had past, Noctis was not only overcome with a feeling of being slashed, but was also hit with an explosion of energy that knocked him off his feet while Sora swung his Keyblade down into a position of standing at ease. As a result, Noctis had dropped to his feet, with his shield dropping to the ground before it vanished, giving Sora the chance to get over the shock of his sudden new ability and then move to hold Noctis at sword point, just to make sure that he did not get up.

"I'm not going to let you hurt any of my friends, Noctis. Now stay down. This is over," Sora advised, his expression completely hard. On the inside, however, he was incredibly excited over how he seemed to have unlocked a new power, one that did not involve blasting someone with one of the elements, but seemed more in tune with his skills with a blade, but right now, he had to keep that inner party right where it was: inside. There were more important things to be concerned about, like the man who had said that he was pretty much hired to kill the Keyblade Samurai and his friends.

Noctis refused to admit defeat though, because he still had at least one trick up his sleeve. "I told you, kid, I can't stop. I've got too much on the line that depends on me finishing this job," the young man revealed as he fingered something that he had hidden in one of his pockets.

A minute later, Noctis had tossed out a smoke pellet that left Sora waving around blindly and in a harsh coughing fit. When his vision finally cleared up, Sora saw that Noctis had vanished, and he quickly started looking every which way that he could in an attempt to find him. Thankfully, he did manage to spot Noctis before he had vanished completely, but the bad news was that Noctis was already a fair distance away, and was quickly able to get further away when he suddenly tossed his sword forward and then seemed to teleport right over to where it had stabbed into the ground, much to Sora's surprise.

"Skilled with multiple weapons, able to summon and switch between them at a moment's notice, and he can teleport! This guy is just way too overpowered," Sora muttered begrudgingly. He shook it off though as he started chase after Noctis, but he could not stop himself from wondering aloud, "How the hell am I even going to catch him when he can teleport himself like that?"

It was at that very moment when yet another splitting headache suddenly struck him, and just like the last few times, he was soon finding his vision going black before the coliseum had faded away completely, while a certain trio that he was starting to get very familiar with came into his view.

* * *

 _The ring of metal clashing against metal echoed through the air as Aqua and Terra's Keyblades collided with one another in a fierce lock. After a few minutes though, the two broke the lock and jumped back, before Terra rushed forwards once again, determined to bring his blade down on the bluenette. Aqua easily leaned to the side to avoid the powerful slash and the next one, with a quick jump backwards placing out of a third strike's reach, but Terra had expected that, and he knew that his fourth swing would hit its mark without any problem. When he saw his blade closing in on Aqua, a part of him had to grin a little at knowing he was about to score a win against her, but his mood soon changed when he saw that the woman did not look the least bit worried. The next thing Terra knew, Aqua had vanished from sight, and his Keyblade only struck air, making him stubble as he tried to catch himself before he fell on his face. Just when he had regained his balance, the familiar tip of Aqua's blue Keyblade came to rest by his neck, and Terra could only groan in frustration as he glanced back at the smirking woman who wielded Rainfell so well._

 _"No fair. You cheated," Terra groaned. "We agreed that we weren't going to use magic this time."_

 _"Actually, we just said no Shotlocks, Command Styles, or spells. We never agreed to not using magic that enhances our movements in one way or another," Aqua corrected, her victorious look not faltering in the slightest. Terra would have protested that if he could, but he knew that she was right, and he could only growl in annoyance at his carelessness in letting Aqua set such specific rules for their most recent spar, much to the woman's enjoyment. "Come on, Terra. Say it."_

 _"No," Terra refused, only to see Aqua's Keyblade moving closer to his neck, as if she were reminding him that he would likely be dead by now if this were not just a friendly spar._

 _"Say it," Aqua repeated, still grinning._

 _"Urgh…fine. I yield," Terra sighed in defeat._

 _"And…"_

 _Terra's only response was to raise an eyebrow in confusion until he realized what she was fishing for. "Okay, I'm definitely not saying that."_

 _"Yes you are. We made a bet, and you lost fair and square," Aqua reminded him. "So come on…say it."_

 _As much as he did not want to, Terra knew that Aqua was right, so he steeled himself for what was about to happen, and gritted out, "All hail Master Aqua, queen of the battlefield."_

 _"And…"_

 _"And maestro of magic."_

 _"And…"_

 _"Please don't make me say the last one," Terra almost whined. He refused to admit that he had been whining at all._

 _"Well you gotta, so you're gonna."_

 _Terra knew he was likely about to lose a few masculinity points when he said this, but like Aqua had said, the made a bet and he lost fair and square. "And my superior in every way imaginable for now and all of time. Long may she reign. Happy now?"_

 _"Delighted," Aqua chuckled as she finally lowered her Keyblade, clearly very amused by Terra's misfortune, and she was not the only one, as another person could not help but laugh as the view drew closer to them._

 _"Oh, she got you good, Terra," the voice of Ventus teased. "I should've brought my camera for that last part alone."_

 _"Yeah, keep talking, Ven. You won't find it so funny when it's you who's on the other end of her Keyblade and being forced to say that," Terra grumbled in retort._

 _"Like that's ever going to happen," Ventus shot back. "Unlike you, I'm smart enough to not say things like 'boys are tougher than girls' and mean it. Especially not while Aqua is in hearing range, because I know she would put me in the ground several times over. You're the one who needs to work on that."_

 _"Aw, isn't that so sweet," Aqua cooed as she rubbed the viewer's head. "Now if only Terra could be as well-trained as you are."_

 _"Hey," Ventus whined, knowing that his teasing had just been turned against him, a fact that was only reinforced by Terra's small bit of laughter. He shook that off though as he asked, "But what was that you did at the end, Aqua? Was it like some kind of super-speed-dodge or something?"_

 _"No. I just teleported," Aqua replied._

 _"Teleported? Like how the Keyblade can send us to a world in peril 'teleported'?"_

 _"No, this is a different kind of teleporting," Aqua explained. "You see, Teleportation is actually a special kind of movement magic that's great for moving quickly over a short distance or dodging attacks like I did against Terra. The way it works is that you just have to picture yourself in the place you want to go to, or imagine that you're somewhere other than your current location, apply a little bit of magic, and then imagine yourself there."_

 _"Think of it like the Sliding Dash or Aerial Slide abilities. Only instead of a fast paced run, or sprint through the air, you're basically jumping from one spot to another. Right," Terra picked up, only pausing to look at Aqua to make sure he was describing it right._

 _"Just about," Aqua nodded. Her eyes then became half-lidded as she pressed a kiss to Terra's cheek and cooed, "It's cute when you try to help me teach important lessons to our friend."_

 _"So I'm only cute when I'm teaching Ven something, huh," Terra questioned in response, though his smile indicated that he knew that was not what Aqua meant._

 _"Well…you do have a few other moments," Aqua teased before she wrapped her arms around him and started to lean upwards a little more._

 _Terra was about to lean down and meet her lips halfway, when Ventus groaned, "Ugh, guys! I'm still right here, you know. Can't you wait until after I'm gone to start swapping spit?"_

 _"Well, someone's jealous that he doesn't have a special someone," Aqua noted with a smile as she backed off, shooting her boyfriend a wink that promised they would pick up where they left off later._

 _"Yeah right," Ventus scoffed. "I may know better than to say things that would piss off a woman, but unlike you guys, I don't need to get together with 'the one' to be happy, or feel complete, or whatever you want to call it."_

 _Aqua's smile did not falter in the slightest, even as she apparently hummed in thought and said, "Terra, I think Master Eraqus told me you had said something just like that once."_

 _"Yeah, and then about a month later, you showed up on our doorstep and threw all plans I had for remaining a bachelor for life out the window. Thanks for that," Terra added in, knowing exactly what Aqua was implying when she brought that up._

 _"My pleasure," Aqua smiled in reply as Terra pressed a kiss to her cheek, much to her enjoyment._

 _"Guys, come on. Get serious. It's never gonna happen for me," Ventus insisted. "I mean, Aqua's the only girl around here, and I'm not about to go chasing after my best friend's girlfriend, and that's without the fact that she's so much…more mature than me."_

 _Aqua had to give Ven props for not calling her old, even if it was not in the wrong way, but she was not going to let that stop her from letting Ven think he was going to be alone forever. "Hey, you never know. You may wake up one day and find her sitting at your bedside, eagerly waiting to meet you, and then end up completely under her spell just because of how beautiful you think she is."_

 _"Okay, that seems a little creepy. Why would she be at my bedside, or even in my room? Doesn't that seem a bit stalkerish to you," Ventus tried to argue, but he really should have figured out that he was not going to win this argument._

 _"Who said she would be in your room," Terra asked. He then furrowed his brows in thought before he said, "But you know Aqua, maybe it wouldn't be a 'she'. Maybe Ven plays for the other team."_

 _"That wasn't funny the first time, Terra, and it isn't any funnier now," Ventus snapped in response, and just like that, both of his friends were laughing their heads off at his misfortune. "Hey, come on, guys. I've told you that I do like girls, and besides, this is more than a little off track. I thought we came out here to do some late night training, not talk about whether or not I'd get a girlfriend."_

 _The three all settled down after that, and returned to their previous activities of sparring practice and helping Ven learn about the Teleport ability just before everything went white._

* * *

Sora could not help but gasp as he came back to the land of reality from his vision, once again wondering why he had seen the whole thing through what he could only assume were Ventus's eyes. It just did not make any sense. Why did was seeing these visions, and why was it that they felt like his own memories when they were clearly someone else's? He shook that off though, because right now, he needed to catch up with Noctis before the older boy could hurt any of his friends. Just as he was about to start running, he thought back to what he had seen in his vision just now, and what Aqua and Terra had said about the ability that they were trying to teach to Ventus. It seemed a little crazy to think that he might actually be able to do that, since he had not even managed to handle casting a spell with any modicum of control, but then again, Noctis was able to teleport as well, and he made it seem pretty easy, so would it be the same for him if he tried?

"Well, what've I got to lose, other than my friends," Sora asked himself. He then looked to a spot a fair distance away from him, closed his eyes to better imagine himself over there, and after applying a little bit of the energy inside of him that he could only assume was his source of magic, he felt as though he was suddenly shifted away from where he stood at a fast pace. When he opened his eyes again, Sora glanced every which way to see that he had just moved from where he previously stood, and he could only grin before he looked forwards again, preparing to make sure it was not just a fluke of luck. The results were very satisfying, as he suddenly vanished from his current position in a flash of light, and then reappeared several feet ahead of where he was seconds later. Seeing this, Sora could not help but laugh in excitement as he cheered, "I did it! I actually did it! I can teleport!"

A sudden, loud boom brought Sora's cheers to an end, and reminded him that now was not the time to celebrate his success at learning a new ability. So, after shoving his excitement to the back of his mind for the moment, Sora instantly broke into a run, teleporting himself forward by several feet every few steps or so while hoping that he would not be too late to save his friends.

* * *

A Few Minutes Earlier

Thor and Hulk were a little concerned about Sora at first when they saw how far behind he had fallen after they started the race through the obstacle course, but any worries they had were immediately forgotten the minute they caught each other's gaze and decided that they had to gain the upper hand against the other. After that point, their minds were focused on nothing other than getting to the end of the course and facing off with the champion of Olympus Coliseum. No matter what got in their way, the two were able to bash, smash, or blast it aside with ease, and despite his slow start, they just knew that their young friend was likely to not be too far behind them, while there was no telling how close that other boy, Noctis might be, so they made it a point to make tracks for the finish line as soon as they were done with each battle. When they finally reached the end of the course, they came out into a much simpler arena where an entire crowd of roaring spectators was cheering loudly, while Phil stood up in a boxed off area to announce the competitors as they came out of the course. The minute the satyr saw them, he had to smirk a little before he grabbed the bullhorn to announce their arrival.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Give it up, for the first competitors to enter the final round of the Games," Phil shouted out to the crowd, causing the cheering to increase in volume. "First up, is the golden boy of Asgard, the master of Mjolnir, the Asgardian God of Thunder himself: Thor!" Phil paused for a moment to let the crowd cheer loudly as Thor lifted his hammer into the air with a grin to show his appreciation for their praise, and when the cheering had died down enough, he continued on. "Second is the bruiser of a new comer, the mean, green, rage machine, all the way from Marvel-topia, the incredible Hulk!"

While the crowd cheered almost just as loudly for him as they did Thor, Hulk let out a bellowing roar as he flexed his muscles, before he shouted out his famous catchphrase, "HULK SMASH!"

"Yeah, you can tell this big guy's ready for action any time," Phil commented as the cheering grew a little louder in response to Hulk's declaration. "But can either of them handle the champ himself? It's time to find out, because here he is now: the one, the only, the mighty…HERCULES!"

Bursting out through the gate on the other side of the arena came a tall, muscular man with rust-colored hair, clad in orange-brown that ended in a metal kilt, a blue cape hanging from the shoulders of his suit, brown knee-high sandals with brown cross-shaped straps with matching colored wristbands and belt, and a reddish-brown headband tied around his forehead. When he came to a stop in the middle of the arena, he immediately stopped to flex his impressive muscles a little while smiling the crowd, who were all cheering even louder than before, with some of the spectators even chanting his name a little. Thor on the other hand, merely stood where he was, appearing very shocked, and for a moment, Hulk thought that the Asgardian had lost his nerve. He was about to try and snap Thor out of it in the way that only the Hulk could, when Thor suddenly grinned widely and shouted, "YEEEEEEEEEEEES!"

The stadium grew a little quieter at that, but not completely silent, while Hulk just gave his friend an odd look for his sudden outburst. After a few seconds, Hulk just had to ask, "What's with you, Goldilocks?"

"We know each other," Thor explained as he indicated himself and Hercules. "He's a friend of the family."

"Oh," Hulk said in response before he looked between the two for a few seconds. Eventually he just shrugged and added only one additional word to his previous statement. "Cool."

Hercules seemed to pay the two little mind as he continued to flex and smile for the crowd, but when his gaze swept over in their general direction he paused for a moment and then looked back before a large grin appeared on his fast as he rushed forward to clasp hands with the blonde Asgardian. "Hey, Thor, old buddy," Hercules cheered happily. "It's been way too long, pal. How've ya been?"

"I have been rather well, Hercules," Thor smiled in return. "I have missed you as well, my friend, but so much has happened since we last met. Loki's recently in the midst of another banishment from Asgard, and hopefully this time he'll have learned his lesson, I've been keeping a strict and steady watch over Midgard these past few years, and I've found many powerful warriors during my time there, including my friend here, Hulk. He has not only proven able to hold his ground against an Asgardian, be it myself, Skurge, or Amora, but he's also shown to be one that many a villain or monster should fear, lest they suffer his wrath."

"Not exactly hard since just about everyone back home's afraid of me," Hulk grumbled.

"Wow, that's awesome," Hercules whistled, either having not heard Hulk's comment, or just too impressed by what Thor said to care. "Anything else?"

"Well, let's see," Thor scratched his chin in thought. "Um…Oh, I'm now part of a team on Midgard that's dedicated to protecting both her and her people from many great threats, and of course, there's also the fact that one my new allies is also…"

"Hey, ladies! You can catch up on the latest drama on your own time! In case you all forgot, there's still a tournament going on," Phil interrupted, bringing an abrupt end to the two's conversation. "So stop standing around gawking and gossiping, and get ready to rumble!"

The minute that Phil had said that, he had also hit a large gong as hard as he could, leading for a new eruption of cheers to spring forth from the crowd, earning Thor and Hulk a sheepish shrug from Hercules, as the hero of Olympus Coliseum said, "He does have a bit of a point. How about we save it for later?"

"Aye, that would be wise. Now come, old friend. Let us do battle once more, but just so you know, I am far stronger now than I was years ago, and I shall not hold back," Thor cautioned with an excited smirk while he gave his hammer a few simple spins.

"What a coincidence. I was going to say the exact same thing," Hercules smirked in return, while his body lit up with a gold-colored aura.

The two were immediately charging at one another, when Hulk suddenly jumped in between them, and clapped his hands together in a powerful thunderclap that sent them both sprawling back the way they came. "What? Did you think I was going to sit back and watch while you little girls were braiding each other's hair," Hulk joked to the two.

The gamma giant's remark just got him an excited grin from both Asgardian and Olympian, and like that, all three powerhouse bruisers were trading blows that shook the entire arena and beyond. Literally, they were shaking the entire arena, the town just outside, and even several other areas miles away with every blow they struck against one another. Even the Olympian Gods such as Zeus, Hera, Hermes, and Ares could feel the tremors that these three were causing with each blow that they landed, and almost sounded the alarm out of concern that the Titans were marching on their gates once again before Hermes took a look to see what was really going on.

Everyone witnessing this battle firsthand would say that it might as well have been a clash between the actual Titans, because these three were displaying a power and strength that could only have come from such beings. Every punch that Hercules threw was easily matched by an equally if not more powerful one from Hulk. Whenever Hulk tossed a particularly large piece of the ground at one person, Thor's lightning was quick to follow before it blasted both gamma giant and Olympian hero. To round it out, wherever Thor went into the air, Hercules was quick to jump towards in order to tackle the Asgardian back down to Earth once again. There were even times when the fight was a little comical, like when Hulk grabbed Hercules by his cape and flung him around several times over like a rag-doll before he finally threw him into a charging Thor, sending both of the two on a collision course with the wall. A bit insulting for the two, but they were having too much fun to really care about that, and to be honest, Hulk was enjoying himself a little too, even when Hercules paid him back for that little throw around by wrapping his cape around Hulk's head, and then proceeding to ride him like a wild, angry bull.

Still, there were times when the fight was also rather frightening. Due to the sheer power that these three were throwing out, the barrier that kept the audience safe from the combatants who were battling it out in the arena could not always stay strong, and thus, some cracks were formed that let some of the shockwaves from anyone of their colliding blows, Thor lightning, or even the occasional aura sphere from Hercules slip through. Luckily the blasts were not too serious, and so far, people were able to get clear before they were hit by the ones that were, but it was still cutting it close. It got even closer when Thor zoomed up into the sky to spin his hammer around, charging it up with lightning as he did, and several lightning strikes rained down around him, many of which either struck his two opponents or the barrier, but some did slip through and nearly zapped someone into a crisp. More often than not, it was Phil who ended up ducking down in order to avoid getting struck by Thor's lightning, and when he tried to shout for Thor to be careful, he ended up getting hit by one last bolt. Thankfully, it was one of the weaker ones, but it was still powerful enough to give him a really serious twitched while static electricity surged through him for several minutes.

"Hey! Would you take it easy on the spinning hammer of lightning thing," Phil shouted in frustration as his body jolted from the jolts that were running through him.

Thor did not seem to hear, but that may have been due to how he had to stop charging his hammer in order to deflect another aura blast from Hercules, and that opened up a chance for Thor to lunge at the Asgardian and bring him back down to the ground again. As a result of Hulk's tackle, Thor ended up losing his grip on his hammer, and Mjolnir crashed to the ground with a powerful boom. Hercules was quick to rush over and try to lift the hammer, only to find it would not budge. That did not stop him though as he was sure he could lift it no matter how heavy it was, but no matter how much strength he used, or how hard he pulled, Mjolnir just would not budge. Eventually, it just got to the point where he should probably have stopped trying, but had not due to stubbornness.

Pinned as he was beneath Hulk, Thor could still glimpse his friend's predicament and had to smirk as he revealed, "Don't waste your impressive strength, old friend. Only those who are deemed worthy may lift Mjolnir, and despite your great power and reputation, you are not worthy of my mighty hammer."

Thor's smirk quickly vanished though, as he saw that Hulk was now grinning at him, and before he knew it, the gamma giant had lifted him up off the ground at last, and started dragging him over to where Hercules was. Hercules was then grabbed by the Hulk as well, once again by the cape, and Hulk then lifted Thor into the air as he pointed out one small flaw in Thor's reason for confidence. "Just because we can't hit you with the hammer, doesn't mean we can't hit the hammer with you," Hulk growled.

Before either immortal knew what was happening, they were finding themselves being slammed down onto Mjolnir several times over, and Thor was soon left wondering if the pain he was feeling from each blow was anything like what his enemies felt when he struck them with the hammer. It would end up being a mystery that would be solved another day, because at that moment, Noctis finally appeared in the arena in a haze of blue energy, and quickly summoned forth the sword he had used to direct his teleportation. He may have been a little tired from all the teleporting and his fight with Sora, but he still had enough strength to jump in and finish any one of the three when they were tired enough. The next time Hercules had hit the hammer, Noctis decided that now was the time to jump in, and he immediately jumped towards the battling three with his blade pulled back to its zenith. When the blade came down though, it met another with a powerful clang, and Hulk was blasted off his feet from the shockwave, releasing his hold on the other two bruisers as a result, while all three were momentarily blinded by the brief flash of light that had come just seconds beforehand.

"I won't let you do this, Noctis," Sora shouted, prompting all three to look and see that it was the Keybearer himself who was holding Noctis's blade at bay. "I get that you must think you have a reason for this, but nothing is worth taking someone else's life like how you're trying to take the lives of my friends and Hercules's."

When he first saw the young boy wielding a Keyblade, Hercules was left shocked and in awe, as it had been a long time since he had last encountered someone with a Keyblade, but Sora's words had come well before he could question either Thor or the young man on the matter, and he was immediately focusing more on them than anything else. "He does know that this is just a tournament, right," Hercules asked Thor. "No one's actually trying to kill anyone."

"That's where you're wrong," Sora revealed. "Noctis is here because someone hired him to kill you, me, and my friends. He thinks he doesn't have any other choice but to do so for some reason."

"Because I don't," Noctis shouted, startling everyone. "If I ever want to find who I'm searching for, I have to kill each one of you."

That left the other three heroes startled and a little confused, but Sora was more focused on Noctis's latest statement. Sora was not sure if the young man realized it or not, but with that simple declaration, he had unintentionally given Sora a better idea of why he was doing all of this. It may not have been all the details, but it was still enough for Sora to piece together more of a picture from this puzzle. A few more pieces quickly fell into place when Hades suddenly burst into the arena in his usual poof of smoke and fire, glaring a little at both Hercules and Noctis.

"Hey-ya, champ. What's the hold up? I figured you would've ended it, wrapped up, put the old kibosh on Wonder Boy and the rest of these shmucks by now," Hades told Noctis, with a very noticeable angry tone. "So maybe you could explain to me why it is that you're taking your sweet time trading glares with the Keyblade kid instead of just ending it like you promised you would?"

Hades should have been a little more careful with what he said, because the minute he heard the word "Keyblade", Noctis's push to get through Sora came to a grinding halt, and he immediately broke off from the sword lock he had Sora in so that he could jump back and give the kid a new, wide-eyed look of surprise. A second look would have allowed one to see that it was not just Sora that Noctis was studying, but the weapon that Sora was holding as well, almost as if he had only just realized what it was and needed further confirmation to prove that it was real. With every passing, silent moment that Noctis looked at Sora, the tension seemed to increase almost tenfold, leaving everyone wondering what was going to happen when Noctis finally acted again, and even more so on what he was going to say next. When he finally did speak, all four combatants were surprised to hear him stutter with a tinge of horror in his voice that could only come from someone who had realized that they had nearly made a grave mistake.

"Y-you…Th-the Key…You're the…You're the Keyblade wielder of legend," Noctis had finally asked Sora in barely more than a whisper.

At this point, Sora probably should not be too surprised that someone was placing him on such a huge pedestal, but at the moment, he was more concerned with Noctis and what he may or may not do with the answer that the Keybearer gave him. So, after gathering his courage and bracing himself for whatever may or may not come, Sora hefted Kingdom Key upon his shoulder and stated, "I don't know about being the wielder of legend, but I am the newest wielder of the Keyblade. Hence part of the reason why some people call me the Keyblade Samurai."

When he heard the boy's answer, Noctis's face immediately tightened into a dark, vicious scowl, but it was not aimed at Sora, Hercules, or any of the other heroes that he had previously been targeting. No, his glare was fiercely locked onto none other than Hades, and his words were laced with so much venom, you likely could have killed a few giants several times over with them. "You hired me to kill the person who is most likely the worlds' only hope against destruction that the coming darkness promises to bring," Noctis had snarled.

"You say that like you're surprised," Hades scoffed. "I mean, hello! Lord of the Underworld and God of the Dead here! Come on. It should be obvious that I wouldn't want someone to stop major death and destruction, 'cause safe worlds and all that is bad for business. Like I'm really going to just sit back, chill out, have some snacks, and basically just let some goodie-goodie do-gooder prance around and keep people from meeting their ultimate fate of falling into the Underworld. Now, if we're done criticizing and pointing out obvious stuff, how about we all just, get on with our lives, or afterlives as it will soon be in some cases, and you can just, use your sword, or one of them other fancy weapons, or even that armiger thing you do, and put kibosh on Irk-ules and all these other heroes?"

Noctis did in fact call forth his sword again, but it was not to attack Sora and the others. No, this time he aimed it right at Hades as he snapped, "Forget it! The deal's off!"

"Eh-hehehe, I'm sorry," Hades chuckled as he picked his ear a little bit. "Do you mind running that by me again? I must've had a chunk of brimstone in my ear or something."

"I said the deal is off," Noctis repeated, slowly for extra emphasis. "None of my friends would want me to take the life of someone who holds the potential to be the greatest light in all the worlds for them, and especially in the case of Luna." He then smirked a little bit as he moved his sword into a ready position and said, "If anything, they'd all probably kick my ass for not pounding you into whatever counts as your afterlife for even suggesting that I do so."

Noctis's words had grabbed Sora's attention, as it confirmed what Sora had already suspected about the kid, but what was really more attention grabbing was the fact that the boy had gotten Hades really riled up, not that anyone really needed to be told that considering his flames went from blue to red once again while he roared in anger, "You'll wish you hadn't done that you little, ungrateful twerp!"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Hercules quipped as he moved to stand alongside Noctis, with Thor, Hulk, and Sora not far behind. "Now you've gotta deal with all five of us."

"Oh, and you think I'm worried, concerned, or even the slightest bit unsettled by that," Hades chuckled as he cooled off. "Please, don't make me laugh."

Just to prove his point, Hades let loose a powerful fireball right at the five heroes, but Noctis immediately swapped out his sword for a large shield to block the blast and keep both himself and Sora safe, while the others dove to either side to avoid it. Normally, Thor and Hulk probably would have just stood there and took the blast, thinking that they could handle it, but after their past experiences with the likes of Enchantress, they knew it was better to err on the side of caution. As the smoke from the explosion faded, Sora leapt out at Hades, with Keyblade in hand, and let loose a powerful swing on Hades. The Keyblade did not seem to do too much, as Hades barely even flinched when the attack landed, and then merely swatted Sora aside like he was a fly. Thankfully, Sora was saved from a painful landing, as Noctis teleported into his path and caught the spiky haired teen before he could hit either the ground or the wall. Sora could only smile in thanks to Noctis before they rejoined the fight as Hulk and Hercules both charged Hades, each with a powerful punch at the ready.

This time, Hades felt a great deal of pain, as indicated by how he was forced to revert to his normal state, and not only was he the one sent flying, but he was sent flying right into the path of Thor's hammer. The Asgardian did not hesitate to bash Hades as hard as he could, sending the Lord of the Underworld high into the sky, where Sora had teleported to, and was waiting to hit him again with his Keyblade, this time determined to make it hurt. Thankfully, Sora succeeded in doing so, and he quickly teleported back down out of the air before he could fall to his death. Hades would likely have done something to help him recover from the combined assault, had he not suddenly been struck by several arrows, courtesy of the crossbow that Noctis had just summoned forth. A minute later, Noctis had dismissed the crossbow, and his eyes glowed red while what looked like several, crystal weapons took shape and began to rotate around his body, much to Hercules and Thor's astonishment, and Sora and Hulk's amazement. The latter two because they had not seen very many things like it before, while the former two due to how they could only think of one person that could possess such power.

"I warned you, Hades. I've already dealt with one trying jester, and now, you'll not just see, but experience what happened to him firsthand," Noctis growled, and a minute later, he had charged and began unleashing all of the crystal weapons on Hades at once, be in the usual fashion of grabbing one of the spinning weapons to attack with, or by simply waving his hand at Hades while sending a mental command for the weapons to attack him on their own.

The others could only look on in amazement as Noctis literally flew around the arena while laying into Hades with a fury unlike any they had seen before. "Should we…do something to help him," Sora finally asked after a few more minutes of watching.

"…Nah. I'm actually enjoying the show," Hulk shrugged.

"I agree. It is not often one witnesses the power of the King of Lucis in action like this," Thor nodded along.

"Yeah, he's got this covered," Hercules smiled in final agreement. "Besides, Thor's the only one who can fly, and even if he wasn't, we'd all probably just get in his way right now."

That last one was probably the only one that Sora could agree with, but he was curious on how Thor had referred to Noctis as a king. It was actually more than a little surprising to Sora, because aside from the way he would sometimes speak and carry himself, Noctis had not really given any signs that Sora could see of being a king, or at least not the kind that Sora normally thought of, but then again, it was probably rude of him to base such ideas off such a simple stereotype. He probably would have questioned Thor on the matter a little more had Noctis not suddenly found himself in trouble.

The young man had been doing well against Hades, but he had also allowed his anger at the Lord of the Dead to blind him a little too much, and as a result, Hades was able to find an opening in Noctis's rapid, powerful attacks and then begin his counterattack, starting with a stream of fire from his hands. Noctis barely managed to raise a shield in time to protect himself, but even then, he was still left with quite a few serious burns, and the pain from that alone managed to make him lose all concentration before he fell from where he was in the air. Thankfully, Sora teleported up to catch Noctis and then teleported them both back to safety on the ground, effectively returning the favor from earlier, leaving the other three to make another run at Hades while Sora did his best to move Noctis clear.

Sora did not have to do too much to make sure that Noctis was safe, as Phil had just entered the arena and volunteered to watch over the young man while Sora helped the others. The Keybearer did not hesitate to take the satyr up on his offer, and immediately turned to help the other three in taking down Hades, his Keyblade already charging with the same energy he had used against Noctis earlier. Thor was the first to notice Sora charging up, and he immediately signaled for the other two to move back, giving Sora the perfect opening to rush in and slash at Hades several times over. When he came out of his final slash, an explosion of energy followed as he lowered his Keyblade, just like last time, and Hades was immediately blown out of the arena completely. The heroes all had to wince a little when they heard strange moaning sounds coming out from the darkness, among which they could hear Hades shouting in what could most closely be considered fear.

"I get the feeling he's not going to be too happy when he gets out of wherever we blasted him to," Sora noted.

"You mean _if_ he gets out of there," Hercules corrected.

Sora was going to argue that, but he soon paused to think about it, along with how hard it was to fight Hades just now, and had to agree with that idea. "If…If is good."

Despite how great the fight was, even Thor and Hulk had to agree that they did not want to fight Hades again if they could help it. That did not stop anyone from thinking that this was not going to be the last they heard from the God of the Underworld.

* * *

"What?! What do you mean the Games are cancelled," Sora demanded about an hour later when everything had calmed down and some healers had finally had a chance to see to Noctis and the others' injuries.

"Exactly what I said, kid. The Games are cancelled. End of story," Phil informed him and the others.

"But how come," Sora asked.

"Two words: everyone is pooped!"

"Oh come on. Even I've never been that dumb," Hulk grumbled, knowing full well that was not just two words.

"You gotta be kidding," Sora complained, still hung up on the Games being cancelled. "After everything we all just went through, you're gonna cancel the competition just like that? I never even got a chance to face off with Hercules."

That got a smirk from Hulk, and he could not resist teasing, "Hah! Knew you wanted to get into the competition with us."

Sora just huffed in response, not willing to admit that Hulk was right, while Hercules came forward and said, "Sorry, Sora, but you wouldn't want any of us to compete in this condition. Besides, from what Thor told me, you've still got a long way to go before you've even mastered some of your powers, so why don't we have a match after I've rested up and you managed to at least master the basics of being a Keyblade wielder."

That got the wielder of Kingdom Key thinking for a minute, and he had to admit that he did like the sound of that a lot better than trying to have a match with anyone here right now. Even without Phil's comment, Sora could tell that everyone was tired, though some were better at hiding it than others, like Hulk, so in the end, Sora could only smirk to Hercules as he said, "Okay, sure, but don't think I'll be holding back if that's the case."

Hercules had to let out a chuckle when he heard that, and said, "You know, you really remind me a lot of Ven. He said the same thing when he helped me out with my training a few years back."

Sora could not help but grin when he heard that. Sure, it was a little annoying to be compared to Ventus like that, especially when you considered the fact that it seemed like everyone and their grandma knew said boy and his friends, but then again, considering what he had heard about the guy, it would be hard not to feel a little flattered by the comparison. At that point, Thor came over to the others, shouting, "My friends, he's starting to come around!"

Everyone knew that the Asgardian was referring to Noctis, and they quickly made their way over to the young king, just as he had lifted himself into a sitting position. Most of the group was not sure what to make of Noctis, considering he had just been trying to kill them a moment ago, but before anyone could voice their concerns on that matter, Sora stepped forward and asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah," Noctis nodded, though he could not help but look away from them in shame. "Sorry about…well, trying to kill you guys. If I had known before…"

"Hey, don't worry about it," Sora reassured him, surprising Noctis a little. "Having people trying to kill you because of what a bad guy said is just another part of being a hero, right? Besides, you learned the truth and helped us in the end, so I'd say we're cool."

Noctis nodded in thanks to that, before Hercules decided to ask the big question. "Why'd you agree to help Hades any way?"

That prompted Noctis to look away, clearly not sure if he could answer in a way that the four would understand. Any such ideas were quickly forgotten when Sora answered in his place. "You were separated from someone important to you and Hades promised to help you find them, didn't he," Sora asked.

Noctis immediately gave the kid a surprised look, wondering how he could know that, and all but confirming that Sora's guess was right. "Yeah," Noctis finally nodded. "To be more accurate, I'm looking for my brothers in all but name and blood, and my wife. We were separated after our world fell to the Heartless. I've been chasing after even the smallest clue to their whereabouts ever since. After all of this though, I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever find them."

"You'll find them," Sora reassured him. When Noctis looked at him in confusion, Sora explained, "I'm searching too."

"For your friends," Noctis asked, though there was an underlying message that asked if Sora was also searching for someone who was more than just a friend as well. Whether or not the kid got that message was hard to say, but either way, Sora still nodded in reply, prompting a smile from Noctis before he handed Sora a small gem with his family crest on it. "Don't lose sight of the light, and when you find them again, don't ever let go of them."

Sora studied the crystal for a minute, wondering what it was for, and immediately looked to Noctis for an explanation, asking, "What's this?"

"Just a little something that you can use to call for backup if you ever need it," Noctis replied. "After all, if the legends are to be believed, you're going to need all the help you can get in the future."

Hearing Noctis mention a legend again reminded Sora of what he had said to Hades, and he had to ask, "What legend were you talking about earlier any way?"

Noctis hesitated for a minute before he finally fixed a powerful look on Sora and said, "Let's just say that if it is to be believed, and you are the chosen one, then you may very well be for all the worlds what I once was for my kingdom: a powerful light of hope that will shine through the deepest darkness."

It would have been hard for anyone to come up with words to say in response to that, and Sora was no exception to that rule, so he just nodded in reply, and Noctis took that as his cue to leave, albeit at a much slower and steadier pace than you probably would have expected. Just before the young king was out of the arena though, Thor called out to him, "A moment, King of Lucis. If your friends did survive the Heartless as you claim, they may be somewhere on another world. A recently made friend of ours claims that there is a world out there for refugees that many people are said to be transported to when their world falls to the darkness."

Noctis looked to Thor for a minute, gauging how much of the Thunderer's words he could believe, before he finally nodded in reply and said, "I'll look into it."

With those final words, Noctis parted from the arena with a smile of thanks, and the others could not help but smile a little as he left. All they had left to worry about at that point was sealing the Keyhole, because Sora was definitely planning to lock it shut before they left, given how the Heartless were obviously a much bigger threat to this world than some of the people here probably realized. Thankfully, Hercules was able to help them out with that problem, and before the Avengers knew it, they were standing in the temple of Hercules's father, Zeus. Upon entering the temple and speaking with Hercules's dad via the massive statue of Zeus, the three were able to find the Keyhole easily enough, and Sora did not hesitate to seal it up, ensuring that the Heartless would never be a problem for this world, and guaranteeing that they could now go back home.

Just before Sora was about to teleport the Avengers back home, Phil came over to him to offer up a small piece of advice on mastering his magic. "I may not know much about the Keyblade wielder stuff, but here's something that I know is true about anything that you need to train for: mastering your basics is always the best route to take. If you get the basics well under your belt, everything that comes after, while slightly more difficult, shouldn't be too hard to handle. If I were you, I'd start off by mastering the Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder Spells before messing with too much of your other spells, because from what I do know about the Keyblade stuff, those three are always the most basic spells that every one of you guys are supposed to know."

"Got it," Sora nodded in reply. "Thanks Phil."

The satyr nodded in return, and with that, Sora summoned forth Kingdom Key, and the Avengers were soon teleporting back to Midgard, hoping that they had not been gone for much longer than Sora and Yuffie had been when the two had been sent to Atlantis.

* * *

"Half the day?! We were gone for half of the whole day," Sora exclaimed when Tony told him how long he and his most recent world-traveling companions had been gone an hour after they had returned. Thor and Hulk had already helped him to explain everything that had happened at Olympus Coliseum, and while Hulk had left a short time ago to call up that friend he mentioned who could help Sora master his magic, and Thor went to either meet with his friend, Jane Foster, or do some other Asgardian thing, Sora had elected to stay behind to see if the team had figured a way to help him handle his surprise trips to other worlds better, and figure out how long they were gone for. Needless to say, he was more than a little surprised by the answer to the latter question.

Tony just shrugged in reply as he pointed out, "Well, I did once tell you that time passes differently when going from one world to another."

"Forget about that," Wasp interjected. "I'm still stuck on the fact that you went to another world without me again!"

That prompted a tired sigh from Sora as he once again asked for the size-changer to let it go; knowing that she most likely would not. Ever since they got back, Janet had been whining and complaining about how she had been left behind once again, despite Sora promising that she would go along the next time he went to another world, or so she claimed. In truth, Sora never actually made that promise, at least not word for word. What he had actually promised was that he would take her to another world at some point in the future, and after he figured out how to really get a handle on traveling between worlds. That did not mean that Janet was going to let up on her complaining though.

"Despite Wasp's disappointment at missing another adventure on a different world," T'Challa interjected with a slight bit of teasing, earning him a mild glare from Janet. "Your most recent transport did give us the readings we needed to help you better ensure that you can travel between worlds safely, or at least as safely as possible."

Tony nodded in response to this, and produced what looked like a gauntlet for Sora to try on. "I've been working on these gauntlets as the next piece of your partial armor. They were originally designed to work as extra protection for you, since the sleeves of your jacket and shirt don't cover your arms, and they even extend over the palms of your hands to give you a low-grade repulsor. Nothing too big like the ones I use, but they'll definitely be enough for you to be able to at least stun someone who's wearing armor."

"Cool," Sora grinned excitedly as he strapped the gauntlet onto his right arm. "What's the new feature then?"

"It's now got an energy scanner that should be tuned specifically to the energy frequency that the Keyblade gives off when it's about to teleport you to another world," Tony replied. "With that scanner, you should know in advance when the Keyblade's about to zap you to another world, and with enough time for you to either call us before it happens, or at the very least, so you can get away and prevent any civilians from getting brought along for the ride. Well…in theory, anyway."

"In theory," Janet questioned, suddenly feeling a little more worried for their youngest member.

"To be fair…it's not like we can really test it, since Sora hasn't mastered teleporting to other worlds on his own, and we've only got two sets of readings on the energy that the Keyblade gives off when it's doing that to go off of," Tony reasoned. "But I'm very sure that it should work like it's supposed to."

It seemed like that was good enough for everyone, as Wasp was soon changing the topic to something else, "Speaking of teleporting, Thor mentioned that you've got a new power now, Sora."

"Oh yeah! I can teleport now," Sora exclaimed happily.

"Yeah, we know about that one," Tony reminded him, thinking that Sora was referring to how he traveled between worlds.

"No, not that kind of teleporting…I mean…well here let me show you," Sora decided when he failed to think of a better way to explain it in words. An instant later, the Avengers were all shielding their eyes a little as Sora disappeared from where he stood in a flash of light, and then reappeared on the other side of the room with a wide grin. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah, I'll say," Janet agreed.

"Agreed, especially since it should help make sure you get to class on time tomorrow," Tony revealed. When Sora gave him a confused look, Tony explained, "Now that you've got that gauntlet on you, it should be at least closer to safe enough for you to attend your classes like normal, so guess who's going back to Midtown tomorrow."

While Sora let out a small whine at that revelation and Yuffie cheered about "no longer having to endure the torture alone", T'Challa had fallen silent as he puzzled over how Sora had learned this new power all on his own, because he doubted that something like that just came to the Keybearer. It just seemed a little too much like how Sora learned to get something closer to better control over his magic on his first day of school, and that was all the more reason for T'Challa to ask, "How did you learn of this new ability, Sora?"

The minute that T'Challa asked that question, Sora had fallen quiet once again, and that was all the Avengers needed to become concerned. Not that he thought that the team should be worried too much, because he doubted that it was really that big of a deal or really anything that could be a cause for concern, but still, Sora was not so sure that they would believe him if he said that he had been having visions of Ventus, Terra, and Aqua, or even how he was seeing some of them from Ventus's point of view. Yes, he had told Thor about them, but the Asgardian was more open to that kind of thing that the others likely would be, and to be honest, Sora did not want the team to worry anymore about him than they already were.

With all of this in mind, Sora elected to give something of an evasive answer and said, "Let's just say that it sort of…came to me after I saw how Noctis could teleport a few times."

The Avengers seemed to take that for now, and Sora could not help but breathe a quiet sigh of relief at that. Sure, it was not entirely a lie, but he still did not enjoy omitting certain parts of the truth either. He knew he was going to have to come clean about his visions eventually, but for now, Sora felt it was better to play it safe and wait a little bit longer before he said too much or anything about them to the rest of the team. Then again, Tony did mention that he had met Ventus in person once, so he figured that it would be best to reveal the truth about his visions if he ever saw one of that particular time in history. He just hoped that it was not going to come any time soon, because right now, Sora was tired and just wanted to go to bed.

* * *

 ** _AN: Game, set, and match. In case it was unclear, this time around, the story of Olympus Coliseum was heavily based on the one you went through in Chain of Memories. And before anyone asks, yes, that was indeed our old pal Noctis from Final Fantasy XV. But better than that, it's a Noctis that got a much happier ending than the one he received in the game, most notably due to the fact that Luna is in fact still alive in this story's continuity. She's just MIA at the moment along with the rest of Noctis's pals. Three guesses as to where their kingdom is from in this story._**

 ** _Sora: Considering how many of the Final Fantasy characters come from there, I don't think they'll even one. Plus, you also made a slight reference to Traverse Town too. That's pretty cool._**

 ** _AN: Yeah, I know, but don't think that means we're going to see said world any time soon. Also, yeah, we got in another reference to Thor: Ragnarok in this chapter. You all know the one I'm talking about._**

 ** _Spidey: What I'd like to know is why you had Sora take time off from school like that and ended up sending him back, despite the fact he technically can't control his world-hopping powers?_**

 ** _AN: Well, now that he's got a snazzy new gauntlet that's designed to warn him in advance if the Keyblade's going to send him to another world, I think he should be more than okay to attend class without too many worries. Besides, it's not like you could tag along with him to another world due to being zapped away with him while in class. You two aren't even in any classes together. Remember, the only Spider-Man character that does share a class with Sora, besides lunch period, is Miles Morales, so it's kinda hard for Peter Parker to join in on an adventure on another world in that case._**

 ** _Oh, and let's not forget we saw another vision of the BBS trio, plus the first take down of a member of this story's Villain Council. Sure, taking down Hades isn't ever really a permanent thing, but keep in mind, Hades doesn't show up as a major threat again until the next game in the KH series, so for this story...I'd say we're good to call that a win for the heroes. And before anyone asks, yes, the things that were mentioned about Loki in this story did happen. Look it up if you don't believe it._**

 ** _Wasp: Can I please be one of the ones going to the next world?_**

 ** _AN: Sorry, but no. For one thing, the next time we go to another world won't be until after the Gamma World adventure, and for another thing, I've already got the characters for that world lined up. But you will go to another world eventually._**

 ** _Wasp: But when?_**

 ** _AN: You'll know when it happens._**

 ** _Wasp: [grumbles under her breath] Yeah, meaning it'll be practically time for the next story when it happens._**

 ** _AN: It won't be that long. Just keep your skirt and wings on, and wait._**

 ** _Hawkeye: This is going to become a running gag, isn't it?_**

 ** _AN: Well, I'm certainly aiming for that. As for everyone else, you should all aim to move Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The Avengers are forced to break off their latest pursuit of a Breakout escapee when SHIELD comes along to request for their help in containing a situation that has developed at the Cube. It's bad enough that the prison has been seized by supervillains, but the fact that a gamma dome is expanding outwards and turning everyone inside of it into horrible monsters that are similar to the Hulk only makes it worse. Hopefully the Heartless and Night Hunter stay out of this mess, but just how long will it be before Sora actually finds himself wishing that he was dealing with them instead of this? And can the team handle battling an entire prison full of Hulks before they are turned into gamma monsters as well? Stage one of the Leader's ultimate plan begins, in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Yep, Part One of Gamma World is coming up next, but for now, we join the masses in waiting for the big release of Kingdom Hearts 3, and until that day, and once I find the strength to pull myself away from said game to work on another story..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	9. Gamma World

**_AN: Hiya everybody! And welcome back to another thrilling chapter in the Kingdom Marvels Series!_**

 ** _[audience applause]_**

 ** _Hawkeye: Kingdom Marvels Series huh?_**

 ** _Wasp: Hey, I like it. Definitely sounds cool, could be used as a possible title for when we reach our version of KH3, and not to mention..._**

 ** _AN: Sorry Jan, but you're not going to be showing up on the next world, no matter how much flattery you try and use._**

 ** _Wasp: Aw, no fair! [pouts]_**

 ** _Iron Man: Hey, where's Sora? Or Kairi for that matter?_**

 ** _Riku: Yeah, did you happen to notice that room where a lot of loud, painful screams were coming from when you came in today?_**

 ** _All the Marvel Cast Members: Yeah._**

 ** _Riku: [points to said room, which has a Do-Not-Disturb sign on it, while loud bangs, explosions, and other various noises can be heard, along with cries of pain and Sora and Kairi roaring in anger] Yeah, they've been in there every chance that they can get after a few certain scenes in Kingdom Hearts 3._**

 ** _Xehanort: [from the other side of said door] N-Now I know what you're thinking: should we try to rip off his arms, and the answer, just might surprise-AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!_**

 ** _Sora: OH CRY ME A RIVER, YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD! WHAT, CAN'T HANDLE THE PAIN WITHOUT THE X-BLADE THAT YOU MADE BY KILLING MY GIRLFRIEND IN FRONT OF ME?!_**

 ** _Kairi: HEY! Sora, you shouldn't be doing that to him. I SHOULD BE DOING THAT TO HIM!_**

 ** _Xehanort: No! No, nonononononono-AAAAAAHHHHH! NOT AGAIN! WHY DO YOU KEEP BENDING THAT IT THAT WAY?! IT DOESN'T BEND THAT WAY!_**

 ** _AN: Hehehehehehe._**

 ** _Ant-Man: Don't you think you should stop them? I mean, that seems a little extreme._**

 ** _AN:...He hasn't seen those parts of KH3 yet, has he?_**

 ** _Wasp: Nope. I'll show him the clips after we're done here._**

 _ **AN: Please and thank you. Anyways, just to be clear, when it comes to Kingdom Hearts 3, my opinion...IT WAS GREAT! The gameplay, the design and story of the various worlds (my favorites had to be Toy Box and the Caribbean, by the way), the story and how they wrapped up so many plot lines while opening up new ones to confirm that we would be seeing a Kingdom Hearts 4 (hopefully a lot sooner than we did KH3, or better yet,**_ **definitely _a lot sooner), I mean WOW! I've only completed the main story myself, but I do plan to go back and do all the other stuff in there too. And I also unlocked the secret ending as well, just to help give extra reassurance to myself that our boy Sora is still alive and searching for a way home, because, as I stated in one of the more recent chapters of Keyblade Legion, he's not gone forever, and the creators of the series have stated that Kingdom Hearts is Sora's story, but either way, it was a great game. Sure, I'm not too crazy about some elements, like specific scenes in the story (see what's happening to Xehanort at the moment for the chief examples), so that's why I've been putting in a lot of time to my KH stories. It's my little way of showing that I do intend to have things go differently in my own AU series than they had in canon. You want more proof, check out the fact that I've got the plot summaries for the future stories in my Keyblades Unleashed Series on my profile now._**

 ** _Hawkeye: Any chance you're going to do the same for our series at some point?_**

 ** _AN: Maybe...Anyways, let's move to today's chapter and other related info, shall we? Starting off, as always, with our review answers._**

 ** _First up, is to "Dragon Rider 66", and let me just say that, there is a possibility that Thor could bring the others to Olympus Coliseum without a gummi ship or Keyblade transportation, if he wanted to, but given how he's always got something going on, be it with the Avengers or his own things, I wouldn't count on that happening. All the other world traveling will mainly be up to Sora here. As for your question about the Far From Home trailer, that was epic! I especially liked how they integrated that version of the classic Spidey theme song in, because that made it even more awesome._**

 ** _Rolling on over to "Twisted Pxl", yes, I do hope to have them find out that Sora has both Kairi and Ven's hearts inside of him, maybe not necessarily at the same time, but that is likely to be the case, or at least close to it, and no, they will not be keeping it a secret. It would be kinda hard to do so in this case. As for why we haven't seen any visions of Kairi yet, it's actually both because there hasn't been a need yet, and there hasn't been any point where they could happen or be relevant at the moment so far. As for your wonder about the pairings, I think Kairi is almost always paired with Sora because those two, they're the OTP of Kingdom Hearts, while other pairings like Roxas &Namine, Roxas&Xion, and any pairings involving Aqua have always been interchangeable because there hasn't really been too much in the way of confirmation, or at least something close to it since they first appeared. Sure, Kingdom Hearts 3 may have given us a few ideas, but even so, that's not going to change what people thinks works best. Btw, the BBS trio have appeared in this story's AN sections. It just hasn't been a while since it happened. Yeah...I think I've likely answer your last question by now, right?_**

 ** _"crawforddarius7", I see that you really want my Code Avengers Spider-Verse story out there, and I assure you that I will try to work on it sometime soon. First, I want to do a good deal of work with all my Kingdom Hearts stories, maybe update A Spider's Focus at some point as well, but it will happen sometime soon, so don't worry about that._**

 ** _Now, "Redrangerlegacy", after seeing the Keyblade transformations and using them as I played through Kingdom Hearts 3, I can confirm that I will be trying to add them into this story, though it may be a little while before it happens. Most likely the sequel to this story, though you do make a good point on having Steve showing Sora how to use a shield offensively, so I'll take that into consideration._**

 ** _Moving it over to "Gamelover41592", the main reason I decided to exclude Maleficent is because we almost always see her in a KH story at some point or another, and also, I felt that it would've been a little hard to have the bad guys of this story really work if there were two groups clashing with each other (namely Loki and his Masters of Evil vs Maleficent and the Villain Council), and frankly, that's a little too much for a first story in the series._**

 ** _Riku: Hey, this next one looks like they have multiple reviews to answer._**

 ** _AN: Well, what do you expect when I tell folks to read and review at the end of every chapter. He's talking about recent follower "Althea Sirius", and let me just go through all of those answers really quick before we finally start the chapter. Sure, having a Sora that started from KH2 would be a little more sensible in some aspect, but you forget, this is an AU story that tells of how Kingdom Hearts would've been different if Sora had started his first journey on the Marvel universe's version of Earth as opposed to Traverse Town. Can't really work with that idea if he's already been through one journey. This is a Sora that's just starting out and gaining powers in a way that he did not gain them in canon. Sure, that may make it seem a little too early for the KH2 outfit, but ask yourself this: what do you think is a better hero look for someone on the Avengers? His awesome, cool outfit in KH2, or that ridiculous jumpsuit...thing he had in the first game? I will admit, you had some good ideas for alternate hero names that Sora could've used, but, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Hikari sound more like a name for a girl than a boy? And that said, to me, Keyblader sounds more like a team name than a single hero's name. You know, like how a single member of the Avengers is called an Avenger, but hey, maybe I'll use the name Keybladers later on in this series. It does have a nice ring to it, so thanks for that. Finally, I've already planned to have a few non-Disney worlds show up here, as evidenced by how a Final Fantasy villain is part of the villain council (which we all saw a few chapters ago), and yeah, maybe Sora's friendship with Donald and Goofy won't be quite as strong as it was in the original canon, but you never know. It could end up being almost just as strong. Besides, this is Sora we're talking about. He can make friends with people who had been a bitter enemy of his like it's as easy as breathing. Oh, and Sora's armor in this story, it will likely last a good while, but it will also be gaining a few upgrades along the way to help when it does get seriously damaged, so you don't have to worry about that. Glad you take such a strong interest in the story, and thanks for the feedback. Not every day I get reviews like yours, so by all means, keep letting me know your thoughts on this stuff._**

 ** _Phew! Well, that took a little bit of doing, so let's get on with the story._**

 ** _Hulk: This seems a little long for something that's only supposed to be part one of Gamma World._**

 ** _AN: Oh! Right...About that...I know I said last chapter that this would only be part one, and I had fully intended it to be, but after writing it out, and along with part 2, I felt that both of those chapters were too short to stand on their own, so...I basically did the same thing I did in Code Avengers and put the two halves together. Here's hoping you guys still enjoy the story. Avengers, to the chapter!..._**

 ** _I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter IX**

Sora may not have been too thrilled about the fact that his leave of absence from school had come to an end, but he was glad that he got to see Miles, Anya, and the others at Midtown in person again. It just was not the same talking to them on the phone or in some instant message chat. Although, that may have been mostly because the others tended to get a bit of a laugh from watching how Sora would struggle so much with the web-cam and other various computer gadgets and gizmos that they all used to chat online, while Sora just grumbled about it. Sure, he could handle working a few basics of technology, but when it started to get a little more complicated, Sora was…very challenged, to put it mildly. Thankfully, Peter, Tony, Hank, and T'Challa were all more than willing to help him out a little bit, or at least to the point where he was as caught up and tech savvy as any other average high school teen. Even so, it did not detract from the fact that Sora preferred hanging out with his friends in person as opposed to over a web-chat or something similar, so he was glad that he could hang out with his Midtown friends again without too much worry. He would have liked to hang out with Yuffie a little more too, but she was in a different grade level than him, and only shared a small number of the same classes as him because of that.

Aside from that though, the other thing that Sora was glad about was that he had not been zapped off to another world again. Ever since he had returned to attending classes at Midtown, the scanners in his gauntlet had not gone off even once. Some of the other Avengers had joked around and said that it probably meant that the Kingdom Key recognized the importance of Sora's schooling like they did, but somehow, Sora doubted that. Even if he did find the jokes a little funny. Still, he was glad that it looked like there were not any worlds in great peril for the moment, because it also helped him to put more focus on the problems they were dealing with here on Midgard. The Avengers had been working JARVIS overtime in their search for the other escaped supervillains, even going so far as to have T'Challa integrate some Wakandan science into Tony's faithful computer butler, and not only that, but Tony also finished his work on Sora's other gauntlet, so now, the Keyblade Samurai had the full matching set of gauntlets to go with his helmet. The kid had made it a point to test out his new toys in the training room the minute Tony had given the go-ahead for him to use the gauntlets' full capabilities, but it ended up looking like he was going to be testing them in the field, because it was only seconds later that JARVIS had gotten a hit on a Breakout Escapee that was on the move, and the Avengers did not hesitate to respond.

"Stay on him," Iron Man ordered the team as they pursued their target.

Black Panther and Yuffie did not give any verbal replies, as they were both keeping their eyes firmly locked on the fleeing criminal as they traversed the New York rooftops like only they could, with T'Challa using the tech in his suit to stick to the walls, while Yuffie just used her ninja training to do the same, before leaping off to another wall, and another, until finally just leapt down onto the next roof in a roll, right as Captain America had landed next to her on his motorcycle, having been out on a simple ride through the city when the alert came in.

"Yuffie and I've got visual," Captain America reported.

"And I'm wondering why the hell he thought purple was a good color to go with for his costume," Yuffie quipped a second later as she broke out into a run that would have made others think she had super speed if they did not know the kind of training and magic she had at her disposal. "Still, ya gotta admit, this guy is fast."

"You can say that again, but that's not going to help this joker for long," Captain America reassured Yuffie just as Sora and Iron Man came flying in from overhead, the former atop his Keyblade Glider as he turned his helmet's sensors towards their escaping fugitive.

Iron Man was just locking his own sensors onto the escapee when the target in question jumped off the roof and disappeared from sight, and then some. "Cap, Yuffie, Panther, he just disappeared off my grid," Tony reported. "Do you have him?"

"Negative," Cap replied, with Yuffie and T'Challa giving similar replies a minute later.

"Wow, HYDRA agents are getting good," Wasp commented. "He doesn't even have any powers."

"Technically, Jan, most of us don't have powers either. Just some really cool tech or impressive skills," Sora pointed out.

Wasp nodded in acknowledgement of Sora's point, before she asked, "What about you? Can you see him on your helmet's HUD, or sense him with your Keyblade-enhanced awareness?"

"No, and also no, because I'm pretty sure that whatever it was that allowed me to pick up on Enchantress's presence in the mansion that day doesn't work that way," Sora replied before he followed Janet in maneuvering a little closer to the ground where the criminal had disappeared to. "Who is this guy again?"

"His name's Clint Barton, a former SHIELD agent that turned out to be a HYDRA spy. Goes by the codename of Hawkeye," Tony explained. "Not only that, but he was one of their best agents, too. He was infamously well-known to be the best shot in all of SHIELD, and likely even the entire world, because he literally never misses a target, and the same can be said for any clues that needed to be found in an investigation. Hence the name. Aside from his costume, the other best way of recognizing him is by the fact that his go-to weapons are a bow and quiver full of high-tech arrows."

"Wow. He must be really good if that's all he ever carried into a fight with him," Sora muttered. Having practiced swordsmanship even before he got the Keyblade, Sora knew that it took a great deal of skill to master any particular weapon, and even more so to use it in a fight where most other people would be using guns or other similar weapons. For this Hawkeye to be able to nail every target that got in his crosshairs with just a bow and arrow, he knew that the guy had to be one incredible archer. Still, all that skill was not going to help too much with nearly all of the Avengers on his trail.

"There he is," Wasp suddenly shouted, having spotted Hawkeye running down an alley, and she immediately dove in to pursue him. When Hawkeye rounded a corner, Janet did not hesitate for a second to keep up her chase, but she did come to a quick stop when she nearly flew right into the pointed tip of an arrow that was notched and ready to fire right at her.

"Hi there," Hawkeye smirked with a sly grin. Clearly he had known he was being chased, and judging by his equally sly, confident expression, he was more than ready for a fight if he found himself getting into one.

At her current size, Janet probably could have dodged the arrow, were it not for the fact that one, she was just inches away from the point of its tip, and two, there was not a target that this guy could not hit. Sure, she was not entirely sold on that idea, but she did not want to be the target that was used to test that claim either. Thankfully, she was not alone, and Hawkeye soon found that out when Sora came swooping down on his Keyblade Glider, and immediately raised his left palm towards Hawkeye, charging up the repulsor that his gauntlet gave him to fire while he shouted, "Back off!"

"Or better yet, just give it up, Hawkeye," Iron Man advised as he too dropped down from above with repulsors ready to fire. A minute later, Yuffie and T'Challa dropped down onto the rafters on either side of the archer, the former with several shuriken already set to throw at even the slightest sign of trouble, with Captain America screeching to a stop on his motorbike in order to block the only other way out of the alley just seconds after, effectively boxing Hawkeye in. "You can't win."

Sora could not help but grin a little, knowing they were about to bag another bad guy and send him off to prison. After how many times that they had been forced to let some of the others get away due to circumstances beyond their control, it felt good to finally get another easy win like they had with Mandrill. His mood quickly changed though when a bright spotlight suddenly came on and blinded him and the rest of the team with its sudden appearance. When the heroes heard someone calling out for them, they slowly turned towards the light source to see the silhouette of a SHIELD jet hovering overhead. For a minute, the team was a bit worried that they might have accidentally gotten in the way of the agency's own attempts at tracking down and recapturing their former agent, but then again, if that was the case, they would not have made such a hasty appearance like this, and the agent on the jet probably would have been giving Hawkeye a warning to surrender as well as opposed to calling out for the Avengers. Either way, they could not let that distract them for too long, but it turned out it had already reached that point when Wasp turned back to where Hawkeye was standing.

"Hey, where'd he go," the size-changer exclaimed.

Hearing Janet's surprised outcry, the Avengers all snapped their attention back to where the archer should have been, only to see absolutely no sign of him at all. It was almost like he had never been there, and from the frantic speed that Sora's head was turning as he looked around, he was not having any better look determining where the archer was. "I've got nothing," the Keybearer finally reported.

"Me neither. There's no sign of him, great," Iron Man grumbled angrily.

"I know," Yuffie huffed, making the others think for a moment she was probably more frustrated about this than Iron Man, until she finished her sentence. "It's only cool when me or T'Challa do that."

While the rest of the team just gave the young ninja deadpan looks in response to her complaint, Iron Man was turning his attention back to the SHIELD jet, which was lowering its boarding ramp so that the person on board could step out and address the team directly. Flying up with Wasp to meet with the agent in question, Tony was greeted by the sight of a familiar face, and for once, Tony was not happy to see him. "Nice going, Coulson," the Avengers leader nearly growled. He was only holding himself back because this was one of the few people on his _very_ short list of SHIELD agents he actually liked. "You just let your own traitor get away. Next time SHIELD wants to help, don't."

"Sorry about that, but we're going to need you to let him go for now," Agent Phil Coulson apologized with his usual easy-going, yet still somehow incredibly serious smile that spoke volumes about whatever reason he was here for. "We didn't come for Hawkeye, Mister Stark. We came for you and your team." A minute later, his smile disappeared completely, and became replaced with a very grim expression that always made Tony a little nervous whenever he saw it. "We need your help."

Hearing those words from any SHIELD agent would have been a bad sign, but hearing them from Coulson, one of the few agents that Nick Fury absolutely trusted with his life and more, could only have spelled trouble, and from the looks that were exchanged between them, Tony and Janet both knew it. So, it was no surprise that Janet had immediately pulled her ID card out of her glove and said, "I'll call Thor and Hulk."

Looking up at what was happening, while also overhearing thanks to the audio receptors in his helmet, Sora suddenly had a feeling that he and Yuffie were going to either need a late pass for class tomorrow, or that they just were not going to be going to school at all the next day, and to be honest, that worried him a lot more than it probably should have. Glancing over to his ninja friend, Sora could tell that Yuffie was likely thinking the same way, because she looked pretty worried too, and that scared him even more.

* * *

A few hours later, the team, minus Ant-Man who had flown off to Wakanda for a little bit, was flying across a vast desert in the Quinjet, while Iron Man flew ahead of the Avengers' main transport with a small squadron of SHIELD jets escorting them to wherever they needed their help at. Sora probably would have flown over on his Keyblade Glider, but he was not sure that he would have been able to keep up with the Quinjet at his current level of control over that particular power, so he felt it was best to ride with the rest of his team. Still, he was very curious about just why it was that SHIELD had suddenly decided to call them in, but he was willing to wait for those answers, unlike his team's leader.

"I'm getting a little impatient here, Coulson," Tony informed one of his few real friends in SHIELD, his frustration very evident in his voice. "You won't tell us where Fury is, you're not telling us what's going on…"

"Even if I knew where Director Fury was, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be at liberty to tell you, Mister Stark," Coulson interrupted before Tony could get too far into his rant. "As for what's going on, it's simpler if you just see it yourself."

Sora was about to ask what that was supposed to mean, having overheard the conversation over the radio with the rest of the team, until Captain America suddenly pointed out, "Look, on the horizon."

The minute the team did, there were several different reactions. For the most part, the team was left a little stunned at the sight of the remains of the former supervillain prison known as the Cube, completely encompassed by a large, green dome that seemed to be expanding little by little, but for Sora and Yuffie, who had never even seen the place before, they were both struck silent in wonder at what they were seeing before them. Hulk on the other hand, could only growl lowly, no doubt remembering when he had been locked up inside that very prison the moment they had gotten close enough to see the place. For a minute, everyone was worried that this was some kind of trap to recapture the Hulk, even if Fury did give the gamma giant a pass so long as he remained with the Avengers, but then again, if that was the case, then they doubted that it would warrant the SHIELD team that was set up in a small base camp several miles outside the dome. If anything, it was way too small, and there were barely enough Hulkbuster units to qualify as the minimum requirement that had been deemed necessary for capturing and/or containing the Hulk. Either way, everyone was on pins and needles as to what Hulk's reaction was going to be at seeing this place again.

It seemed like the tensest few seconds of any of the Avengers' lives before Hulk finally let out a noise that was more than just a low growl, and when he did, they were not sure if the words he spoke made them feel better or worse, because the first thing that Hulk said was, "Yeah, this is definitely a huge problem."

"You can say that again," Banner muttered from inside his partner's mind, not that anyone knew that, but if they did, they would have been just as worried as he looked and sounded right now.

Seeing the SHIELD jets landing at designated sites prompted Wasp to bring the Quinjet down as well, and once the team's ship had touched the ground, with Iron Man landing in front of it a second later, the team quickly clambered out to get a better look at whatever was going on. "What manner of sorcery is this," Thor questioned aloud for everyone. Well, almost everyone.

"It's pure gamma radiation. What else," Hulk scoffed like it should have been obvious. When the others all turned to look at him, Hulk just said, "What? The place was built to contain supervillains that got their powers the same way I did, or from some other form of radiation, and even before the Breakout, Banner and I knew it was just a front for making more Hulks. Plus, _I'm_ made of gamma radiation. I'd know that stuff anywhere."

No one could argue with him on that, and this time, it was not just because they did not want to. They all knew that he was right, and the evidence was right in front of him. "Still, it's pretty impressive stuff that we're seeing here," Tony had to whistle after a minute. "I mean, man, I bet Hank is sorry he went back to Wakanda now."

"No kidding. This is way better than studying Vibranium," Wasp instantly agreed.

"Ahem," Yuffie coughed, reminding Janet about who she was standing next to at the moment.

"Oh, uh…no offense," Janet quickly apologized, and she took T'Challa's silence to mean that none was taken.

"Hulk, it's good to see you again," a new voice suddenly said, turning the team's attention to the speaker. When his eyes fell on a man in black pants and a red shirt with long, green hair, Hulk seemed to smile a little bit more.

"Yeah, back at ya, Samson," Hulk agreed. He then looked the man up and down for a minute before saying, "You look good considering that I'm pretty sure you were half dead when we parted ways."

Samson just laughed as he patted the big guy on the arm, though whether it was because he was expecting that or because he was used to Hulk's humor, none of the other Avengers were sure. Only one of them had a question about the man's identity. Well, two of them, but only the older one of the two was brave enough to ask. "Now who's this guy," Yuffie questioned.

"Doctor Leonard Samson, at your service," the green haired man replied. "I was working here at the Cube when the Breakout happened, and ended up being exposed to the gamma radiation that was leaking out from its core at the time. If it weren't for Banner and Hulk, I probably wouldn't be here right now, even if it is with a few…minor changes."

"Hey, at least you're not just some puny scientist anymore. Whenever I turn back into Banner, he never retains any of my strength. Kinda pathetic if you ask me," Hulk joked, ignoring the looks he was getting from his other half in their shared mind.

While the two gamma irradiated beings continued to converse, Cap leaned a little closer to Sora and whispered, "Why does that man have green hair?"

"How should I know," Sora replied with a shrug, clearly not bothered by it. "Besides, is it really that strange? My best friend has silver hair, and no one ever questions him about it." A minute later though, he could not help but add, "Well…not anymore, at least." He then glanced over to one of his other teammates and asked, "What do you think, Jan?"

Apparently, Sora did not know that when Janet had a finger to her chin, she was seriously thinking over something that was likely fashion related, and if anyone asked her that particular question, she would automatically be set off. "I'm thinking he should fire whoever the hell he paid to design that suit of his," the size-changer immediately deduced. "First off, the lightning bolts went out of style ages ago. Unless you can really make it work, like say if you're Thor or some other guy with electric powers, it's a total no, otherwise, you might as well wear a neon sign that says 'Lame' in all caps with an exclamation mark at the end. Not to mention that shade of red and black just barely go together, and I mean _barely_. I mean, come on! Everyone knows that if you want to wear red and black together, the former needs to be in a much darker shade than what he's wearing. The only saving grace is the silver gauntlets and belt that he's wearing, and don't even get me started on…"

Yuffie soon came to the rescue in stopping Janet's fashion rant by slapping a hand over Janet's mouth, and saying, "Okay, okay! We get it Fashion Princess. No need to start planning a whole new fashion line for superhero wardrobe."

While Janet was a little insulted at being interrupted and for Yuffie's newest nickname for her, she did have a small gleam in her eye that made it crystal clear that the ninja had likely just given her an idea the minute that Yuffie had made a mention of a new fashion line for superheroes. Luckily, Iron Man was able to keep everyone on track and prevent Janet from going too deep into that bit of planning when he asked, "So, can someone please explain the situation to us, now?"

"It'll be easier if we explain inside," Coulson informed them, gesturing over to the large aircraft that was apparently serving as the centerpiece of the SHIELD base camp.

Sora may not have known too much about the vehicles on this world, but he definitely recognized an impressive one when he saw it, and Coulson's jet easily qualified for that list. The thing was all black and very massive, and it almost looked more like a spaceship than it did a plane. He also could have sworn that he also saw another pair of SHIELD jets docked on top of the massive aircraft, and as they drew closer, Sora could have sworn he heard Wasp mutter something about it looking like something out of _Star Trek_. Sora likely would have kept on just walking in a daze as he continued staring at the massive craft, had someone not suddenly come up behind him and given him a small shove to his shoulder.

Turning around to the perpetrator, Sora was met with the sight of a young woman who did not look that much older than him, with short, dark hair that had purple tips, and decked out in a tight suit that seemed to hug all of her curves, and was colored in various shades of black and grey, with some purple on the shoulders and along the sides of her torso. Another thing to note was that she wore a pair of silver gauntlets that cover her lower arms and most of her hands, but left her fingers bare, save for the gloves she wore underneath them. "What's the matter, kid," the woman asked, her voice helping to confirm that she was pretty close to his age. "You've never seen one of the world's biggest planes before?"

"Can't say that I have, Agent," Sora admitted with a shrug while resting his hands behind his head.

"Please, call me Daisy. Daisy Johnson," the SHIELD agent insisted as she held out his hand to him. "Well, that or Quake. Either one works."

"Nice to meet you, Daisy," Sora nodded in reply, accepting the handshake. "I'm Sora."

"Sora Hart, the Keyblade Samurai, the youngest member of the Avengers, and freshman at Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School. I know," Daisy nodded. When Sora shot her a perplexed look in question of how she knew all of that, Daisy just shrugged and said, "I like to keep up to date on all information regarding the superheroes of the world. It's part of the reason why I ended up joining SHIELD, or more specifically, Coulson's team. The fact that I'm a great hacker also had something to do with it, too."

"Cool," Sora grinned in reply with a nod as he followed Daisy up to the meeting room where the others were waiting. Somehow, he had a feeling that he and Daisy were going to get along really well.

The minute that the two teenagers had entered the room, which looked like a miniature control center to Sora, Daisy excused herself to stand alongside Coulson, who was standing at the head of the room. "As I'm sure we're all aware by now, during the Breakout, various supervillains all escaped from the Vault, the Big House, and the Raft in force after the prisons all suffered a strange, still unexplained shut down of their systems, while any attempts to keep them from escaping were made all the more difficult due to the interference of strange, shadow creatures."

"The Heartless," Yuffie supplied.

"Yes, them," Coulson nodded in response.

"And we still have no idea if the Heartless were the cause of the Breakout or what else could have been responsible," Iron Man questioned.

"We're still looking into it, as I'm sure you are, Mr. Stark," Coulson replied, making it clear that he was not going to willingly share any details about the progress in SHIELD's investigation of the Breakout, assuming there was any. "Here's something that I'm sure some of you aren't aware of though: Only a handful of the supervillains contained in the Cube actually left the prison. The rest remained inside for reasons that we were not entirely sure of until now. Daisy, if you would?"

"You got it, AC," Daisy nodded with a grin. Ignoring the playful eye-roll that her superior gave her, Daisy set to work bringing up a video on one of the screens so that the Avengers could see it, and the team were all treated to the sight of a squad of Hulkbuster soldiers moving towards the entrance to the Cube, albeit with a green tint, while Daisy explained what they were seeing in more detail. "This is video from SHIELD's incursion into the Cube after the Breakout. The staff and SHIELD personnel were all accounted for, but the prisoners…well, that was a different story."

A minute later, the lead Hulkbuster agent in the video was suddenly grabbed by a large three fingered hand, and dragged into the darkness of the shadows. In response, the remaining agents started firing blindly at where their comrade had disappeared to, only to pause when a bright light suddenly erupted from nearby, and just when they were scrambling for cover, some of them screaming in fright as they did, the video feed cut out completely, startling some of the team a little when it did. "What was _that_ ," Wasp gasped, referring more to the large hand that had appeared than anything else.

"Emil Blonsky, the Abomination. Strong as the Hulk, twice as mean, and with military training" Samson replied as Daisy brought an image of what looked like a very monstrous version of Hulk.

"Yeah, I remember the first time we met," Hulk grunted with his arms crossed. "Guy was only hard to beat that time because I had never fought someone that much like me before."

"As I recall, that fight also ended up breaking…Harlem," Coulson stated.

Hulk just shrugged in response, though it was hard to really tell how much of it was an apology and how much of it was in a manner that said he did not care too much. He then looked to Samson and said, "I'm guessing he's not the big problem."

"You'd guess right, big guy. Part of it actually has to do with that dome you all saw outside," Samson admitted, nodding for Daisy to bring up the next image. Said image was another video of a team of SHIELD agents that had set up a camp that looked to be much closer to the Cube than this one was, and Sora could have sworn he saw a look of sadness cross Daisy and Coulson's face as they watched the video. It only really stayed on the former, because the latter was going right back to business after schooling his features again in a split second.

"The energy dome you all saw outside had exploded outward from the Cube and the SHIELD team that was acting as backup to the Hulkbuster unit was caught inside of it, and then this happened," Coulson explained, while the video showed just what had happened to the agents that were caught inside of the dome's eruption. To the Avengers' horror, the agents in the video all suddenly began mutating and soon transformed into hideous monsters before the video cut out again. Though only Wasp and Yuffie let out gasps of shock, while the Hulk growled angrily at the sight of what had happened, and the others just grimaced or did their best to keep their composure.

"Oh my god," Sora whispered before he glanced over at Hulk. "Was that anything like what it was when…you know…?"

"More or less," Hulk shrugged. "It was more painful for Banner than it was me, but then again, most of those days are kinda…fuzzy. Back then, I really was barely more than a mindless monster that just smashed stuff uncontrollably, but it would probably be better to describe it like how someone can't really remember too much of their days as a newborn without looking back at old videos and stuff."

Sora nodded in response, getting just enough of what the Hulk was describing to really understand it, and then returned his attention to the meeting at hand, just as Coulson stated, "The dome is expanding without any sign of stopping. At this rate, it'll hit a town in the next six hours, and a major city in eight."

"Who is responsible for this," Captain America demanded.

"I'm guessing the Leader. This whole thing reeks of his kind of dirty work," Hulk offered up in his own assessment of the situation.

"You'd guess right," Samson replied just as Daisy had pulled up an image of said villain.

"Whoa! That dude's got a big head," Yuffie lightly joked upon seeing the mug shot.

"You have no idea," Hulk grumbled.

"He's a gamma irradiated villain, as strong as the Hulk is, the Leader is intelligent," Samson continued on, acting as though the other two had not spoken up.

"And as far as we know, the Leader's inside the Cube, most likely with a small army of gamma villains," Coulson stated. "Everyone from the Abomination, to the Absorbing Man, Zzzax, and anyone else you can probably think of that the Hulk has most likely tangled with. They were all inside the Cube when the Breakout occurred. That's why you're all here. We want you to go into the Cube."

The minute she heard that, Wasp had broken out into laughter along with Yuffie, but the latter quickly stopped when she realized that no one else was laughing, and soon elbowed the size-changer to point it out to her too. "Oh, wait, you're serious," Wasp realized with a crestfallen look. She then glanced out the nearest window that was facing towards the dome and asked, "Not to harp on this one particular little point, but how're we going to get into the Cube without…you know…getting all gamma-ed up?"

"This is how, Wasp," Samson replied with a proud smile, as he gestured for one of the scientists on the command center bridge to step forward. A minute later, said scientist, a young woman who had been watching the previous video with a very worried look on her face, quickly stepped forward with a rack that held up a number of what appeared to be green and white hazmat suits, one of which Daisy was already changing into along with a few other agents while Coulson was just retrieving his own, along with one for Samson. "I've modified this SHIELD radiation plating to protect you," Samson explained as he helped Daisy finish getting into her suit while activating it for her as well. "Wearing these, you should be immune to the effects of the Gamma Dome."

The agents then began passing out the remaining suits to the Avengers, until the scientist that had wheeled them in came up to Hulk, who merely glared and asked, "You really think I need one of these suits?"

"Um, no sir. Sorry," the woman hastily replied, her voice carrying an English accent as she spoke.

"Hey, don't worry about it too much," Sora reassured her on Hulk's behalf while he accepted the offered suit in the big guy's place. The young Keybearer was going to need one too, after all. "Hulk's just not much of a people person, Miss…"

"Simmons. Doctor Jemma Simmons, sir," the young woman replied with a forced smile.

"Nice to meet you, Jemma," Sora nodded. He then gave her a reassuring smile as he stated, "Don't worry about your friends. We'll get them back to normal as soon as possible."

That seemed to cheer Simmons up a little, and she gave a much more sincere smile as she said, "Thank you, sir."

This time, Sora let out the groan he had held back before, and said, "Please don't call me sir. It feels really weird, especially when it's coming from someone who looks like they aren't that much older than me. Just Sora is fine."

Simmons nodded in reply with a slightly bigger smile before moving to help the other agents with getting the Avengers suited up, though she did smile a little when she saw she was not the only one who got brushed off after offering an Avenger one of the suits. Thor had also waved off the agent that had approached him with one by simply saying, "An Asgardian needs no such protection."

The agent just looked at Thor for a minute before nodding and carrying the suit over to someone else that would be going in, seeing as all the other Avengers were already holding their own suit, and were now either putting them on or just looking them over. At least they were until Iron Man asked Samson a very important question. "So you've sent people in wearing these?"

"Uh…no, it hasn't been tested yet," Samson admitted. When he saw the rest of the Avengers giving him looks that clearly stated that his words were not inspiring confidence, he quickly slid his helmet on and added, "But I'm confident it will work."

"It'll work," Hulk reassured the team, surprising them a little. "What? Aside from Banner, Samson's the smartest guy there is in the field of gamma ray science, especially when it comes to stuff that's meant to safe guard others against it. If he says that it'll work, then it'll work."

"Good enough for me," Sora nodded in agreement while he tried to activate his suit. He ended up hitting random buttons for a little while though, as he was not entirely sure which one did what, until Daisy finally came over to help him out. "Thanks," Sora nodded in gratitude.

"No problem," Daisy nodded in return. At that point, Sora could not help but take note of how the arms of Daisy's suit seemed to be slightly modified, likely as something that would be used in place of her gauntlets, and figured that those same gauntlets served a pretty important purpose. He had to put it aside though, as he noticed that Daisy was trying to get his attention. "Listen, I've got a bit of a favor to ask of you."

"What is it," Sora inquired.

Daisy's smile fell once again into the sad look Sora saw before, and she revealed, "Some of the agents that were caught inside the dome…they're teammates of mine and Coulson's; really good friends, actually. One of them is also Jemma's fiancé, so…"

"I get it. You want me to promise that we'll get help them out of this mess, right," Sora guessed. Upon receiving a nod in reply, Sora smiled and quickly said, "Okay, sure thing."

"Wait, what," Daisy asked in surprise. She was about to offer some kind of compensation for Sora's aid, but she was not expecting him to agree before she could utter even one word. "Just like that?"

"Yeah, of course," Sora replied like it should have been obvious, though he was confused as to why Daisy was saying that. "Why? Did you think I was gonna say no?"

"Well, no, it's not that. I mean, I get that you and your team are all here to help anyway, but I kinda figured you would've just brushed me off and told me to focus on the bigger picture or something. A lot of people tend to do that, especially since I joined SHIELD," Daisy admitted.

"Well, maybe some people would, but if a friend needs me to help out with anything, I'll gladly be there to do it," Sora informed her.

"Now _we're_ friends," Daisy asked with an incredulous tone, though a chuckle or two did seem to seep into her voice. "You must be from someplace where everything's supposed to be really easy."

"I don't know about everything being easy, but when it comes to things like making friends, sometimes, it is just that simple," Sora pointed out, his smile not faltering at all.

Daisy just stared at him for a minute, before she finally let out an honest laugh, and said, "Sora, I think I can officially say that you're either one of a kind, or just a dying breed."

"Thanks," Sora nodded in response while resting his hands behind his head as his grin grew a little bit more.

"Hey, if you kids are done, we've got work to do," Iron Man called out, and upon turning to his teammates, Sora saw that the Avengers were all suited up and done with checking over their suits, with Iron Man having activated his own armor's gamma ray protection, as evidenced by how the lights on his suit had turned green as opposed to their usual blue, and the two quickly followed the Avengers, Samson, and the other SHIELD agents out to the Gamma Dome.

* * *

A short time later, the Avengers and SHIELD were a short distance away from the slowly expanding dome, checking over their equipment one last time before any of them made the big jump to see if their gamma armor would work once and for all. When they were done, all they needed was a volunteer, but no one was really feeling brave enough to step forward at the moment. At least, not until Iron Man said, "So who wants to go first? Panther? Hulk?"

Hulk just crossed his arms in response, not making any moves to proceed forward. T'Challa on the other hand was still intent on proving that he would keep his promise to earn the Avengers' trust, so he was more than willing to follow Tony's orders, no matter how good or bad they might have been. He likely would have gone through first had Captain America not raised his shield to stop him before the Wakandan king could take more than two steps. Even Steve did not always follow all of the orders he was given, but only when he thought there was a better way to proceed or just disagreed with said orders, like right now.

"Leaders lead," the super soldier told the son of his old friend.

"Thanks Cap," Iron Man groaned in reply, despite knowing that no one would be able to see his frown behind his helmet. Stark then walked forward a few paces, stopping right at the edge of the slowly approaching dome before pausing to glance back at his team.

In response to his hesitance, Captain America gave him an easy thumbs up, which was soon copied by both Sora and Yuffie, the former of which added a reassuring nod, while the latter leaned closer to Wasp and whispered, "So who's gonna get his armory if he mutates?"

"I heard that," Iron Man informed the ninja, but he received no apology in return. Only a shameless smile that was accompanied by quiet giggles from Sora, Wasp, and Daisy while everyone else just rolled their eyes.

Everyone went silent soon enough when the dome finally passed over Iron Man, and the group was soon waiting with baited breath to see if he would mutate. Thankfully, he did not, and the rest of the team took that as their cue to step through as well, each relieved to see that the armor was working as it was intended to, while Hulk shot Samson a smile of what looked like approval. Hey, the big guy may not want to ever be "cured", but that did not mean he could not appreciate it when he saw something that prevented more Hulks being made actually worked right. Iron Man then glanced over to his team before he smugly commented, "By the way, if I had mutated, none of you would've gotten my armory. Pepper and Rhodey would get first dibs."

"Aw, that's so sweet, in a weird way," Janet cooed, drawing looks from everyone else. "What? He just admitted he would leave his impressive collection of armors to his girlfriend first if something every happened to him. You can't tell me that you don't think it's kinda sweet."

Tony just marched forward, glad that his helmet kept his face hidden from the others at that moment, and soon after, the rest of the group was putting their minds back on the mission at hand. The further in they went, the more uneasy they felt, because the whole place had a creepy feeling to it. There seemed to be various forms of wreckage and debris everywhere, be it just rocks that had been broken apart by a very powerful force or the remains of the equipment the previous team had brought in with them, and there was a faint green mist wafting about them like a cloud of fog, most likely as a side effect of the Gamma Dome. What left everyone even more worried was how few signs of life there were so far, be it in terms of the criminals that they were expecting or the agents that had been mutated. The whole thing just put the team more and more on edge by the minute.

"Iron Man to SHIELD base camp, respond," Tony finally called out over his suit's comm. system after a few more minutes, only to receive nothing but static in reply. "Ugh. Communications are down."

"SHIELD's down, too. I've got nothing," Coulson then reported before looking to his own teammate. "Daisy, got something?"

"…Sorry AC, but no," Daisy replied with a shake of her head. "We're on our own."

Despite the worries that began to stir up, the team continued to press onward, though with a bit more caution than before. Even Hulk seemed to get a bit more worried, as he quickly moved to the front of the group, almost as though he intended to act as a shield for the others in case something jumped out at them from in front. Wasp on the other hand, elected to fly ahead of everyone, scouting out the area for any signs of anything, until she finally happened upon what was left of the jets that had flown in the incursion team, and the base camp that they had set up outside of it. Needless to say, the sight of how so much of it had been torn to shreds in almost every way you could imagine scared her a little, but she did not let the others know that beyond the few words she offered up. "Man, look at this place."

Sora was about to nod in agreement when he saw something start moving behind the size-changer, and he immediately summoned out his Keyblade in a flash of light as he shouted, "Jan, move!"

Hearing the startled cries of her friend was more than enough to get Janet to fly away from her current position, but the fact that a large, rock-like monster had suddenly seemed to spring up from the ground definitely encouraged her to fly even faster. The Avengers and SHIELD agents were quickly putting themselves on guard, but the latter group suddenly found themselves frozen in their tracks as a pair of large, hulking men and a massive woman with wings joined up with the first creature. The one thing that all four monsters had in common was that they were all wearing the tattered remains of SHIELD uniforms, though the first monster also had the addition of a shredded lab coat over his large, rocky body.

"Coulson," Iron Man asked when he noticed how the agents had seemed to freeze up.

"It's them. It's my team," Coulson gasped in horror.

"No, they're not," Hulk growled while cracking his knuckles. "Right now, any part of them that was your team is too deeply buried beneath the monsters that they've turned into."

The combined roars and hisses that came from the gamma mutated SHIELD agents certainly helped prove Hulk's point, and at that moment, only one thought could come to Wasp. "I kind of miss chasing Hawkeye."

"You and me both," Yuffie admitted as she nervously fingered the shuriken in the pouch on her gamma armor's belt. She had made it a point to make sure all of her weapons had been moved into said pouches while she was changing, but somehow, she was suddenly finding herself thinking that a bunch of measly shuriken were not going to be of much help here.

All of a sudden, the mutated agents rushed at the team, and that snapped Coulson and his men out of their stupor, prompting them to open fire for all the good that it did. Even with the barrage of laser fire that the SHIELD agents were throwing out, the harpy agent was still able to break through and grab one of Coulson's men in her talons so she could carry him off, but thankfully, Wasp was quick to give chase. The minute that Janet hit a soft spot on the Harpy's leg, the agent ended up being released and fell right into Yuffie's waiting arms, and the ninja quickly began dashing away as fast as she could with the Harpy giving chase when she spotted where her prey had gone to. Not that she got too far, as Daisy suddenly came in from out of nowhere, and landed a hard kick into the Harpy agent's blindside. Daisy then quickly moved to get closer, only for the Harpy to suddenly leap up and with a loud screech and then pin the young agent beneath her.

Reacting on instinct, Daisy immediately raised one arm up to prevent her mutated teammate from clawing into her, all the while she tried to reach the woman inside. "May, stop! You need to try and focus," Daisy prompted. "It's me, Daisy! You know, your former protégé? We just had breakfast together the other day…kind of."

Apparently, May was not able to hear the young woman from inside the monster, because her attacks just grew more vicious, until someone suddenly blasted her with a fire ball from behind. Turning to the perpetrator of the attack, Harpy May saw Sora rushing with Keyblade in hand, and the spiky haired teen was soon skidding to a halt so that he would avoid getting hit by the powerful swipe that May swung out at him. Sora quickly dodged a second attack from the mutated SHIELD agent, and prepared to attack once again, when suddenly, May was blown away from him and Daisy by a surprise shockwave. Turning to the source of the blast, Sora could only gape as he saw Daisy with her arm extended upwards to where May had previously been while an aura of vibrational energy seemed to fluctuate around her gauntleted hand.

"Whoa," Sora gasped. "I'm guessing that's what the gauntlets are for?"

"Something like that, yeah," Daisy admitted with a shrug as she got back to her feet. She then threw both arms out as she fired another pair of shockwaves at the mutated May, sending her flying away from Coulson and another agent, and into arms reach of Samson, who quickly grabbed hold of her leg and swung her down to the ground as hard as he could.

Meanwhile, Iron Man was forced to blast into the air in order to avoid being crushed by the Golem Agent, who he realized was someone named Fitz upon seeing the name on what was left of his lab coat, but he was soon forced back when the rock monster swung its large arm around and into him. After using all of his thrusters to regain some stability, Iron Man quickly opened fire with some repulsor blasts, distracting Gamma Fitz long enough for Thor to slam Mjolnir into the golem and knock it to the ground. This did not go unnoticed by either one of the hulking men that were currently facing off against Captain America, Black Panther, and Hulk, and the minute that the slightly smaller one saw his comrade get knocked to the ground, he let out an angry growl and began slamming his fists into the captain's shield over and over again, while the bigger one just kept wailing on Hulk, while the jade giant blocked or dodged his blows.

"Yeah, that's right. Keep trying to hit stuff, and burn through that gamma energy," Hulk prompted, showing one of his few moments of strategic thinking. "It may not do much good in getting you back to normal, but it will at least tire you out enough for this!"

A minute later, Hulk finally landed a powerful punch that sent the bruiser that was perfectly equal to his size flying back a few feet, and he likely would have landed on Coulson had the agent not dove out of the way before the hulking agent had crashed down. When Coulson turned to get a better look at the mutated agent, he quickly recognized several features on the individual, including the odd looking rifle that looked like a combination of a shotgun and an ax, and soon said, "Sorry Mack. I know that getting hit by the Hulk isn't pleasant, but in this case, it's for your own good. Trust me; you'll be thanking us later."

Meanwhile, the gamma ogre, which could only have been the final member of Coulson's mutated teammates, Agent Triplett, or Trip to his friends, was continuing to pound down on Cap's shield, until T'Challa finally jumped in and kicked him away from the patriotic Avenger. Gamma Trip then rushed the Wakandan, only to T'Challa easily dodge him and then counter with a hard, leaping uppercut that was followed by a spin kick across the face. Unfortunately for Black Panther, his leg was quickly caught by the Ogre Agent, and was soon thrown across the battlefield like a rag-doll. When Gamma Trip turned back to where Captain America was, he found his vision being filled the captain's shield just seconds before Steve had rammed into him with a leaping charge. Upon landing behind Trip, Captain America only glanced over his shoulder for a minute to confirm that the Gamma Ogre was out of the fight before moving to join his teammates. Of course, even without seeing the dazed state of the mutated Trip, he probably would have been able to realize that easily enough with how the agent had dropped to the ground seconds later.

As for Thor, he had found that taking down the golem that had once been Agent Fitz a bit harder than he realized, because the agent in question had quickly stood up again and began pummeling the Asgardian several times over, much to Thor's irritation. His frustration soon found an outlet when Thor grabbed Gamma Fitz's large hand and bashed him away with Mjolnir, making him stumble a little closer to where Sora and Daisy were standing. At that point, Sora raised his Keyblade high into the air and called down a blast of his lightning spell, stunning Fitz long enough for Daisy to blast him with a pair of shockwaves, and for Hulk to then come in and land one final punch that finally knocked him out cold.

"Heh. That went well," Hulk grumbled.

"Tell me you're joking," Daisy almost begged.

"Nope. If they had been fully mutated, they would have doing a lot worse than that," Hulk informed them. "Take it from someone who knows."

While the others just contemplated Hulk's words in silence, Thor just huffed in disappointment and said, "These creatures may share your origin, my friend, but they are pale reflections of the true Hulk."

"That's a _good_ thing, Thor," Iron Man reminded the Asgardian as they all started walking over to the others, where they found Samson scanning the unconscious Agent May.

"And it's gonna stay that way, too, because they'll be back to normal as soon as we shut this whole thing down," Hulk revealed.

Before anyone could ask how he knew that, Samson stated, "He's right. Once these agents are clear of the gamma field, they should revert back to human form, hopefully, with no side effects."

"You had some pretty good moves back there, Doc," Captain America then told the gamma scientist. "You may not be quite at the same level of strength as the Hulk, but you were definitely impressive all the same."

"Naturally. Anyone can become tough if they get powers like I did, but it takes something special to be able to use it right, and Samson definitely has it," Hulk smirked, once again showing a side of him that the Avengers rarely ever seemed to see. This whole adventure was really shedding some light on the many facets of their gamma teammate's life before he joined the team.

"Doc Samson, Avenger. Think about it," Wasp then added.

"Yeah. I mean, if you get approval from both Cap and Hulk, you know that's a good sign," Sora piped in with his usual grin.

Samson probably would have felt honored by the praise under normal circumstances, but in this case, he had to disagree. "Look around," Samson sighed as he gestured to their surroundings. "This is all my fault. Bruce warned me, and I didn't listen. My only concern right now is making this right."

"Hey, you weren't the only one who didn't listen to Banner. Most people stopped listening to him anyway after I first showed up," Hulk pointed out. He then paused for a minute, glancing off to the side while seeming to mutter to himself, before he added, "And besides…you were just doing what you thought was right in trying to help others. Banner was the same way when he started doing his own work with gamma radiation, and that led him to me. If anyone can make this right, it's the three of us. Banner's words, not mine."

If it were not for the fact that everyone knew about Hulk being able to talk with Bruce inside of his mind, they all probably would have thought he was a little crazy. Well, they did sometimes think that Hulk was crazy, but it was usually for a different reason than that. Either way, it seemed to raise Samson's spirits a little, given the smile of thanks he was giving the big guy afterwards, but it was still a bit of a distraction from the task at hand, and Iron Man was happy to return their focus to that task. "This dome has to have some kind of power source like a gamma generator."

"And that would be right in the middle of the Cube. No way Leader would leave it anywhere else, and that's also the only way he could get a steady supply of gamma energy," Hulk indicated.

"If the Leader truly is as brilliant as you and Samson say, Hulk, then this is no doubt a trap. He would be prepared for SHIELD at the very least, and our large green friend at the very most," Black Panther suddenly pointed out.

Wasp suddenly gasped and exclaimed, "I forgot you talked."

"Tell me about it. I sometimes forget he does too, and that was before we all left Wakanda," Yuffie teased.

"Not the time, Yuffie," T'Challa almost growled in response.

Apparently, Thor had missed all of the jokes, but that was likely because the idea of running into more creatures like Hulk was making him a bit more eager for a better fight, because a minute later, he had come up to give T'Challa a friendly pat on the shoulder, or at least his version of one, and confidently stated, "If this is a trap warriors, then so be it."

Thor's bravery seemed to be rather encouraging to everyone, but Sora was still pretty concerned. If the gamma monsters that they encountered out here were that tough, there was no telling just how powerful the ones inside the Cube would be, and that was without taking into account the former inmates that were now running the prison. To be quite honest, he was not entirely sure if he could handle a fight that crazy. Sure, he had been through some difficult fights before, like when he faced off with Noctis a short time back, and every time he had fought the Heartless, but this was different. They were going up against creatures that were more than likely just as strong as the Hulk, and that scared him a little. It must have shown on his face, because Daisy soon came over and gave a playful nudge as she asked, "What's the matter, Samurai boy? Not thinking about chickening out on us, are you?"

"Get real," Sora scoffed as he tried to put on a smirk to keep anyone from worrying about him. It must not have worked though, because Daisy was still giving him a look that indicated that she knew better, and Sora quickly caved. "Hey, you can't tell me that I'm the only one who's worried about fighting a bunch of monsters that are just as strong as Hulk, can you?"

"Probably could, because they aren't as strong as me," Hulk answered for Daisy. "Even if someone or something is made the same way I was, there's no chance in hell that it could ever match me. I'm the strongest one there is, and that's never gonna change. Besides, like Goldilocks said, most of these guys are just cheap knockoffs. We can take 'em blindfolded."

That definitely raised Sora's spirits a little more, and anyone who was listening to Hulk's short speech was also feeling a little better about their chances. Still, not quite everyone was willing to just charge in without a plan, and Iron Man proved to be one of those people when he announced, "Okay, Thor and Hulk go in first."

* * *

A few hours later, the whole team was inside the Cube and they were all instantly on their toes as they made their way through the darkened hallways full of green mist that they could only assume was from the gamma radiation. "Stay sharp team," Captain America warned everyone.

Iron Man cast a look in the captain's direction and then said, "Right, everyone stay sharp."

Before anyone could shake their head at Stark's antics, one of the SHIELD agents hollered out in fear before he suddenly disappeared into the smoke, and a second agent was quick to follow soon after. Coulson tried calling out to his men, but it was of no use as he received no response in reply, and that was all the excuse that Daisy needed to start raising her arms in preparation to fire off another one of her shockwaves, while the Avengers all readied their own powers and weapons for action. "The gamma radiation is messing with my systems. I've got multiple contacts, but I can't lock them down," Iron Man then reported.

"If anyone is completely terrified, I can escort you out," Wasp then commented, and from the sound of her voice, Sora could tell that Janet was probably just as terrified herself, and to be honest, he could not blame her. The whole thing was reminding him of the very first time he ever watched a horror movie with his friends when they were kids. Needless to say, he never let Riku pick out a movie again after that night without making his best friend promise that it would not be of the horror genre, because that experience had left him terrified. He also claimed that it had left him scarred for life, but everyone just thought he was being dramatic. Kairi was the only who believed him, having been just as terrified of the movie as he was, and Riku always seemed to think that was another excuse for him to tease the two of them about being perfect for each other. Before Sora could make any comments in response to Janet's offer, Samson was suddenly grabbed by some invisible force and thrown against the wall, startling both Keybearer and size-changer when it happened. The really frightening thing was that Sora could have sworn that the smoke around them had suddenly grown arms and done it.

"Show yourself, coward," Thor then demanded, only to find himself grabbed from behind by a massive man who appeared to be made of metal and then thrown back like a sack of potatoes.

Seeing this large metal man, who he recognized as Ironclad, told Coulson exactly who was attacking them, and he immediately cried out, "It's the U-Foes!" A minute later, a man with a skull for a head, known to the world as X-Ray, had grabbed the SHIELD agent and zapped him with a powerful blast of electricity.

Captain America was about to move to engage when he was suddenly swept up off the ground by a swirl of green smoke which then seemed to take on the shape of a woman. A minute later, the smoke woman had drifted up to the captain and hissed, "Give Vapor a kiss." The minute she said that, Captain America found his suit penetrated by Vapor's gas form and his mouth being filled with toxic gas that began to suffocate him while somehow feeling like someone was trying to kiss him.

When Wasp and Yuffie saw X-Ray attacking Iron Man, they prepared to engage the gamma villain, when suddenly they found themselves being pulled away by an invisible force, almost like someone was moving the telekinetically, and were soon knocked into the wall. The minute after Wasp had fallen to the ground and Yuffie was starting to rise to her feet, Sora and Daisy started to move as well, only for a man who seemed to have the appearance of the galaxy cut out and given human shape with white eye and a v-shaped symbol on his forehead to step forward and wave his hand at them. A minute after he had, the two suddenly felt like the gravity around them had increased by a great deal, right to the point where they were forced down to their hands and knees in an effort to stay standing, leaving the strange man holding them free to say, "Welcome to the Cube."

"Vector," Sampson gasped. He then noticed a circular device on Vector's chest that he immediately identified and he then shouted, "That's…I created those devices to _drain_ gamma energy!"

"The Leader has other plans for them," Vector replied as he gestured to the device on his chest, clearly beginning to boast. "Our power has increased to levels you can't…"

He was quickly cut off halfway through when Black Panther leaped down from where he had perched himself on a nearby wall and kicked him in the back. "You all talk too much," T'Challa commented before he leaped off of Vector.

"No kidding," Hulk growled when he saw Vector trying to stand, and he immediately stomped down on the villain in an effort to keep him from getting up again. It may have been a light push of his foot, but given Hulk's size and strength, that was not really saying much. Vector was just lucky he was only forced down into the floor enough to make a hole in the ground that was shaped like him.

Hulk then turned around to clap his hands together, and the shockwave of his thunderclap blew Vapor right off of Captain America right at the same time that Thor had managed to break free from Ironclad's hold. The Asgardian was just about to move and assist Iron Man with getting X-Ray off when Yuffie ended up beating him to the punch by tossing her shuriken at the electric-powered villain. Her attack did not hit, but it did distract X-Ray long enough for Iron Man to punch him off, so all that was left at that point, was to deal with Ironclad, a feat that was taken care of by Thor, Sora, and Captain America tossing their respective weapons at the large bruiser, disabling him the moment that they all hit, long enough for Daisy to knock him down a little more with another shockwave. "Truly a poor showing," Thor seemed to complain. "The Leader will have to do much better."

"Please don't give him any ideas in case he can hear us," Sora begged. He did not want to see what it was like if the Leader did worse than this.

"No," Black Panther suddenly cut in, getting everyone's attention at once. "The agents outside, the U-Foes, it is all a distraction."

"For what," Daisy asked, but she quickly got her answer when a large wave of electricity suddenly swooped down on Wasp and Coulson, shorting out their suits and then reemerged as Zzzax. Iron Man and Captain America immediately raised their respective methods of defense when Zzzax shot out a pair of blasts at them, when Sora swooped in to divert the attack with his Keyblade while Thor and Hulk charged at the supervillain in retaliation.

"Goldilocks! Go high," Hulk shouted as he slammed a powerful uppercut into Zzzax, knocking the electricity man into the air, and Thor, easily catching on to what his friend was planning, leapt up into the air shortly afterwards. Upon bringing his hammer down on the villain, Thor easily dispersed Zzzax in one fell swoop, but their efforts only seemed to amuse Vector as he attempted to sit up, despite the injuries he had incurred from Hulk earlier.

"You don't get it, do you," Vector asked as he struggled to hold himself up on his elbows. "We don't need to _beat_ you."

"Could've fooled me, Spaceman," Sora retorted, not noticing how Iron Man's suit was fizzling with electricity after it had gotten showered with a bit of the dispersed electricity from Zzzax. Tony on the other hand, did not miss this fact, and quickly realized what the U-Foe leader meant by his remark.

"Oh, no, the gamma armor," Tony gasped in horror, and his suspicions were soon proven true after they all heard a loud, agonizing cry of pain from Wasp.

Turning to where their teammate and Coulson had fallen, the Avengers and Daisy could only watch in horror as their respective teammates' suits completely failed and began coming apart as they started mutating. In the next instance, Coulson had turned into an ogre like creature similar to the one that his teammate Trip had mutated into, while Janet had been transformed into a humanoid version of her namesake. The team could only look on at the two in horror until Gamma Wasp let a loud chittering sound and then shrieked loudly as she charged directly at Samson.

Sora was the first to react by getting in Wasp's path and raising his Keyblade in defense, allowing him to block some of the slashes that Wasp unleashed with her new stinger pincers, until one slash got through and managed to nail him in the side. Thankfully, it looked like Sora's suit held up against the attack, and Sora was able to lock his Keyblade with Wasp's pincers when she next attacked. "Janet, stop! It's me," Sora called out, hoping that he would have better luck in reaching his friend than Daisy had in reaching hers since Wasp had only just mutated. "It's Sora, remember? Your new, surrogate little brother? You took me to my first day of school at Midtown?" He almost faltered a little in his struggle to hold the lock between their respective weapons when Janet applied a little extra strength, and then glanced at the others before he whispered, "You tricked me into telling you about the change I made to mine and Kairi's cave drawing the other day? You know, the one that made it look like I was giving Kairi a paopu fruit?"

That seemed to shake Janet out of her gamma induced haze for a minute, given how her eyes stopped glowing green after she heard the words, but it only lasted for a short time, as the glow soon returned to her eyes and she then shrank down before beginning to attack Sora once again. Thor quickly came to Sora's aid, hoping to take the worst of Gamma Wasp's attacks so that they would not need to worry about Sora's suit being damaged and him getting mutated as well. The last thing they needed was to have to deal with a gamma monster with the power of a Keyblade, but at the same time, the number of mutated SHIELD agents that were now crawling out of the woodwork to surround the team, which included the now mutated Coulson, were not that much better in comparison.

"Well, this looks really bad," Yuffie commented.

"Oh, ya think," Iron Man retorted, even though he completely agreed with the ninja girl. "Thoughts?"

"We can't hurt these men," Captain America insisted, though he was not too sure that Hulk heard him over the way he was growling at their approaching attackers.

"I'm pretty sure they don't feel the same way about us," Iron Man quipped.

"They don't. They're nothing but blind rage and animal instinct right now, so they're gonna attack anything that they might perceive as a threat, which would be anything and just about everything," Hulk informed the team.

"Thanks Hulk. I feel so much better after hearing that," Iron Man drawled in response. "Panther, Yuffie, you two take Coulson. Cap and I will…"

Iron Man never got the chance to finish, as Black Panther suddenly flipped over his teammates and landed feet first atop a gamma SHIELD agent's head before flipping back once more and quickly running off in another direction. Not only that, but Yuffie was soon following his lead, though with the added bonus of tossing out a few of her smaller shuriken at some of the ones that were still standing on her second descent before she turned and followed T'Challa. "Yuffie? Panther," Iron Man called out in an attempt to get the two to stop.

Only Yuffie seemed to hear him though, as she turned back and said, "Don't worry. I'm pretty sure that Kitty-Cat has an idea. Just trust us; we'll be back before you know it."

"I can't believe this," Iron Man groaned as he watched Black Panther and Yuffie disappear from sight.

"Heads up," Captain America shouted just seconds before he had to block an attack from a mutated SHIELD agent, bringing Iron Man out of his groaning misery and back into the action as he jumped into the air and fired a unibeam at the offending gamma monster.

Quake and the other remaining Avengers all quickly began to take action shortly afterwards, and the hallway was quickly filled with whatever magic spells that Sora managed to call out, repulsor, laser blaster, and shockwave blasts, and the loud booms of Hulk's punches mixed in with the clangs and bangs of Cap's shield colliding with something. Sadly, it was not long before the U-Foes and Zzzax had started to recover, and they too were quickly joining the fight as well. When he saw this, Sora turned to aim his Keyblade towards the bigger threats that they were facing, and shouted, "STOP!" The result he got was just a big load of nothing, as the bad guys just continued advancing. "Stop," Sora attempted again, and he quickly began to grow frustrated as he kept waving the Keyblade in an attempt to encourage the spell to come out. "Come on, you did it before when we were fighting Kraven and Mysterio back at Midtown, what's the difference between that and these guys?!"

"Here's a thought: maybe it's the fact there's too many of them," Quake offered up as she shot off another blast at a gamma agent that had gotten too close for her comfort.

"We can't give up," Captain America insisted over the loud noises of battle that had filled the area.

"Won't matter if we do or don't," Hulk growled as he punched away another gamma agent before tearing some of the floor out and throwing it at the U-Foes in an attempt to keep them from getting close. "All they have to do is take out your armor, and you'll end up just like Wasp and Coulson."

"Hulk's right! We have to go for the generator," Iron Man informed the team while he continued to fire his repulsors. "Samson, go! I'll cover you."

Samson immediately raced off with Hulk hot on his trail, with Daisy flanking them both, and Captain America following behind a moment later while Iron Man continued to shot out some covering fire. Tony then turned to see that Thor was still engaged in battle against Gamma Wasp, while Sora was continuing to try and cast his time spell, and he quickly shouted, "Thor, Sora, we have to go!"

"But what about…" Sora started to argue as he glanced towards Janet in worry.

"Iron Man speaks truthfully, young Keyblade master," Thor admitted begrudgingly as he intercepted Wasp's next strike. "If we are to save Wasp, we must make haste and eliminate the greater threat, but rest assured my friend, the Leader will pay for this."

Sora wanted to argue, but he knew that Thor and the others were right and simply nodded before turning his Keyblade and firing off a few blasts of Blizzard in an attempt to build some form of ice wall that would stop their attackers from getting much closer. Thor was next to follow and he brought down a great deal of the ceiling to block the path so that the gamma agents and Gamma Wasp could not follow, which Sora then reinforced by firing a few Fire spells to bring down more of the ceiling in addition to that. It did not stop their attackers for very long, but seeing them break through definitely encouraged Sora and Thor to pick their pace, the former by teleporting closer to Quake's location while the latter merely flew faster while bringing down another portion of the ceiling in a second attempt at stalling.

Sadly, even the second blockade did little to slow down their tails for very long, as the gamma agents, Gamma Wasp, and all the gamma villains they had just faced were soon upon them once more. Sora, Thor, and Iron Man all quickly opened fire with their respective long-range attacks, when the iron Avenger was suddenly tackled from above by X-Ray. Iron Man was quick to blast the U-Foe off him, but he soon found himself directly beneath one of the gamma agents until Cap's shield suddenly struck the agent. "You four protect Samson! I'll get Tony," Steve then shouted to Thor, Sora, Quake, and Hulk as he retrieved his shield.

Unfortunately, the captain's rescue attempt was all for not, as both he and Iron Man were soon backed into a corner by several gamma mutates until they eventually caught in Zzzax's grip and their suits were quickly shorted out. As he felt the gamma rays seep into his armor, Iron Man called out, "Thor, Sora, Hulk, destroy…the generator…no matter what!"

Samson was about to move and help Iron Man when Thor placed a hand on the doctor's shoulder and said, "Doctor, Iron Man speaks truly. Find us the Leader and we will finish this."

Samson quickly nodded in understanding and then led the three remaining Avengers and the remaining SHIELD agent down the last bit of hallway to the generator. Unfortunately, the Leader was not the one waiting for them there. "Ah look Wrecker, they actually thought the Leader was gonna be here," Piledriver commented to the leader of the Wrecking Crew.

Piledriver then took one of the gamma enhancers and attached it to the device on his chance, and soon enough, the entire Wrecking Crew were all mutated into the Gamma Wrecking Crew. "Let's take 'em down, boys" Wrecker shouted, and his crew immediately charged in.

"Wrecking Crew," Quake asked.

"Aye," Thor replied exasperatedly. A minute later, Thunderball had thrown his wrecking ball directly at Samson, knocking him out of his suit. Thor, Sora, and Quake all looked on in shock only to see that Samson had remained the same as he was before.

"I'm…I'm okay. I'm not changing," Samson told them with a relieved chuckle.

"Guess that's as gamma-ed up as you're gonna get," Hulk huffed in reply before he had to punch Bulldozer back just seconds before the powered up supervillain could hit him.

Quake and Sora were both then rolling out of the way to avoid getting hit by a charging Piledriver, but Samson was not so lucky, and ended up getting pushed back out of the room. Quake would have sent out another shockwave when Wrecker suddenly dropped down from above, and she had to raise one of her arms up to defend herself. She soon let out a small cry of shock and mild pain as a result, due to Wrecker's crowbar damaging the gauntlet on said arm, prompting Sora to blast Wrecker away with a blast of Fire. "You okay, Daisy," Sora asked as he rushed over to her.

"Yeah," Daisy grunted while holding her arm. "He damaged my gauntlet, but his hit didn't get through my suit." Before either of them could say anymore, Thunderball's wrecking ball came out of nowhere and smacked right into Sora just seconds before it wrapped around Thor, preventing the Asgardian from moving to assist any of the others, and much to their horror, the blow ended up destroying Sora's suit much like it had Samson.

"SORA!" Thor, Hulk, and Quake all shouted at once, fearing the worst for the Keybearer, while the Wrecking Crew only grinned at the prospect of gaining what was likely going to be a powerful ally, but when the smoke cleared, they were all shocked to see that, despite his suit being torn apart, Sora remained completely unchanged.

This seemed to come as a surprise to Sora as well, because he took a few more minutes to look himself over in an effort to be sure that he had not mutated as well, but when he was absolutely certain, he could not help but grin and say, "Guess Thor's not the only one who didn't need to wear gamma armor, huh?"

Sora's boasting quickly came to an end when Bulldozer suddenly rushed him, forcing him to dodge to the side, activating his regular helmet and gauntlets as he rolled away, but given how Wrecker had just pinned down Thor, while Bulldozer's charge had ended up slamming Hulk several feet away from them, he was not so sure that he and Daisy would be able to do much of anything else to win. It did not help that Piledriver still had Samson pinned either, but that quickly changed when a number of shuriken suddenly rained down on the villains from up above, drawing Sora and Daisy's attention upwards just in time to see Yuffie dropping down to join the fight while Black Panther tossed a pair of vibranium daggers into the core of the generator. A moment later, the generator exploded, and the gamma dome was completely dispersed, while the resulting shockwave from the explosion proved powerful enough to knock out the Wrecking Crew, and likely reverberated outwards to knock out all the other gamma villains in the prison as well.

Seeing his allies slowly getting back to their feet again, T'Challa immediately dropped down from his high perch and assisted however he could, with Yuffie smiling at everyone all the while. "Sorry to keep you guys waiting for so long, but Kitty-Cat seemed to think that he could not share his plan with me despite how loud everyone was being," Yuffie joked to the others.

"Doesn't explain why you two suddenly quit the field and left us to fend for ourselves," Daisy groaned, clearly irritated with the two for that.

"Apologies, my friends, but we could not get close enough to the generator while the Leader's forces guarded it," T'Challa explained. "I was sure that you all would be able to distract them long enough for me to act, and though I did not expect Yuffie to follow after me, she did prove to be of great assistance."

"Why didn't you tell us that was what you were doing," Sora asked.

Now T'Challa had the decency to look a little sheepish before he admitted, "I felt that there was not enough time to do so, and you yourself said that there was a chance that the Leader could have heard us, Sora."

"That was mostly as a joke," Sora snapped. He then took a deep breath before letting it out in a long sigh and saying, "Maybe you should work on your team communication skills for our next mission."

"I will do my best to improve on that," T'Challa promised with a smile.

"Yeah, he's going to need a lot of help though. In case you haven't noticed, Kitty-Cat's not the most talkative person out there," Yuffie teased.

"Yuffie," T'Challa growled in warning, but all he got in return was a shared round of laughter from everyone else. Right now, they were all just happy that this nightmare was over. Everyone, except for Hulk that is, because he could only cross his arms with a cross, yet thoughtful look on his face.

* * *

A few hours later, the various villains that were acting as the Cube's defense forces were all cuffed and being escorted to transports that would take them to the temporary holding facility that had been set up for the Breakout escapees, while the Avengers and the agents that had been mutated by the Gamma Dome were being looked over by various doctors just to make sure that they had not suffered any long-lasting side effects from their exposure. Even Yuffie, Daisy, Thor, and Sora were being looked at, despite being the only ones who were never mutated by the Gamma Dome, but that did not keep anyone from being surprised by the fact that Sora was apparently immune to the effects of said dome. Frankly, it had left a lot of the scientists rather baffled, and Hulk confirmed that Banner was in the same boat as well. Not that Sora really had an explanation for why he had been unaffected by the dome, or at least not one that he could easily give. He figured that it either had something to do with his abilities as a wielder of the Keyblade, or the fact that he was from another world like Thor, but he could not really tell anyone here about that without knowing for sure who knew about those secrets and who did not, so he ended up just shrugging it off and saying that it was probably a power he had that he did not know about until now.

Whatever the case regarding Sora's immunity to the Gamma Dome may have been, everyone was just glad that they would not have to worry about battling a Hulked-out Keyblade Samurai any time soon, and Samson still had more good news to come as he reported to the recovering Coulson. "Everyone seems to be recovering with no residual radiation poisoning," the gamma scientist revealed. "The energy the Leader used was very specific."

"What about the Leader, himself? Was there any sign of him at all in the Cube," Coulson asked.

"No, but we saved a lot of lives today, and we foiled his big plan," Samson sighed, slightly disappointed that they had not captured their target, but still glad that they had stopped his plan. At least, he assumed so, until someone who had been very quiet during his debriefing finally spoke up.

"I'm not so sure about that," Hulk admitted, making everyone turn to him. "This was all too easy."

"Easy? I must have gone on a different mission," Yuffie rebuked, because if you were to ask her, nothing about this little run into the Cube had been easy.

"This was too easy a win for anything that involves the Leader," Hulk clarified. "If he wanted to really make this little plan of his stick, and have a huge impact, he wouldn't have gone for something so small."

"How was any of this small? We had a prison full of powered up radiation-powered villains and several agents and superheroes that were mutated by gamma rays, and that would've expanded out to a nearby town, and city soon after," Daisy reminded him.

"And if the Leader really did want to do something like this, he wouldn't have made it so that the dome would need to expand out for a few hours in order to affect a town. He would've just started in the most populated area that he could find," Hulk revealed, scaring everyone the minute that they heard that. "Why settle for a small army of gamma monsters, both new and old, when you can have an entire city worth of them?"

"Maybe he just got a little overconfident or something," Sora offered, but he knew that his idea was weak even before he had opened his mouth.

Hulk still had to disagree, albeit silently, as both his and Banner's minds were both working several miles a minute trying to piece together the puzzle. Eventually, one idea did begin to form, and it was not one that either side of the gamma hero particularly liked. "Or…this whole thing was just…a test run."

"A test run? A test run for what," Coulson asked, now really confused.

"Uh…I'm thinking it might have something to do with that, Boss," Daisy stated nervously as she pointed to something behind Coulson, while Hulk and the others all just looked on with wide-eyed fright.

Turning to what his agent was referring to, Coulson also found his eyes widening as he saw what looked like the edge of a second Gamma Dome quickly moving to encompass them, and that was all the cue that Sora needed to reactivate his helmet and gauntlets once again while his hand started flexing in preparation to summon out Kingdom Key again at any second. Everyone else was just on edge, but unlike Sora, it was not because they were preparing to fight. It was because none of them were wearing gamma armor this time, and that could only mean one thing for everyone who was not gamma proof. More to the point, the number of people who were immune to gamma radiation was much smaller than the number that was not, and seconds later, Hulk, Sora, Thor, and Samson were all turning this way and that as they heard the screams of the other Avengers and SHIELD agents echoing around them before giving way to loud roars, shrieks, and other animalistic or monstrous sounds. Even Iron Man was not immune to the effects of the gamma rays that had just surrounded them, as his armor's protection against that particular brand of radiation had been shut down because of Zzzax and his helmet was also open while he had helped oversee the transport of the captured villains. Before anyone knew it, the three Avengers and the gamma scientist were all surrounded by monstrous versions of their friends and allies.

"How is this possible? The Leader's machine was destroyed," Thor questioned after moving to stand back-to-back with Hulk, Samson, and Sora.

"Yeah, the machine for his test run," Hulk reminded Thor. "Told you guys it was too easy."

"Hulk, I think I speak for everyone here when I say I'm beginning to hate it when you're right," Sora quipped.

"Tell me about it," Hulk groaned, with Banner saying the exact same thing from inside his conscious.

Before anymore could be said, Samson was suddenly tackled away from the three Avengers by a large, cat-like creature wearing what they all recognized as what was left of Black Panther's suit. Sora was just about to move and help get his gamma mutated friend off of the scientist when several more gamma monsters suddenly barred his path, along with the Gamma Avengers. As he looked over his teammates, Sora could not help but become a little more worried. He knew that anyone of his teammates were tough in their own rights, but with this new transformation, which definitely included strength that rivaled Hulk's, there was very little chance that they could survive this fight, meaning that he and the remaining two Avengers only had two options. Somehow though, Sora did not think that Hulk and Thor were liable to run away, and the Asgardian quickly proved his suspicions by repeating Sora's earlier actions when they first saw Wasp transform.

"Avengers, remember who you are," Thor pleaded with his Midgardian comrades, only to get a loud roar from Gamma Captain America and Gamma Iron Man in response.

"It's not gonna be that easy, Thor," Hulk reminded his teammate, and given that Hulk was using the Asgardian's real name, Sora and Thor both knew that the big guy had now gotten serious.

Before anyone could ask for some ideas of a plan, the gamma monsters all rushed at the three, prompting Hulk to let out a loud roar as he began punching, kicking, and even thunder clapping them away from their group as best as he could, while Sora and Thor just did their best to parry, deflect, or avoid the attackers. Neither of the other two were too willing to fight their friends or innocent people, but from the looks of things, it did not seem like they were being given much of a choice. Still, they were surprised that Hulk was so willing to just open up and start fighting back like he was. Then again, they had been told that the big guy had basically been going up against the whole world for years now, so it probably should not be that much of a surprise. What was shocking though was the next thing that Hulk said when he finally found a chance to take a break from his attempts at keeping their mutated comrades away.

"We have to get out of here," Hulk bellowed to the other two.

"Are you mad, Hulk," Thor questioned as he caught Gamma Yuffie, who had turned into a massive, female brute with claw-blades sticking out of her wrists. "You wish to run from this battle and leave our friends to this suffering?!"

"He's right! We can't just leave the others like this," Sora protested.

"You want to help them?! Then we need to go! We can't do anything other than get overrun and taken to the Leader if we stay here," Hulk shouted back, punctuating his point by making a mini-earthquake after slamming his fists into the ground. Hulk's attack did disperse quite a few of the gamma monsters, but that hole was being filled just as quickly, so if they were going to go, now was the time. "COME ON! MOVE YOUR ASSES!"

Thor merely hung his head in silence, showing that he realized that his friend had a point, and when he looked up again, he replied, "You go, Hulk. Take Young Sora with you. The two of you may be our best hope at stopping this."

"But Thor," Sora started to say, only to suddenly be picked up by a large green hand, and thrown over the shoulder of the gamma hero that it belonged to. "Hey! Hulk, put me down!"

"Sure, I'll do that after we get out of here," Hulk retorted, and with that, he took a mighty leap that saw both him and his passenger flying over the heads of their attackers and away from the battle royale that Thor was now facing alone. Not that it lasted for too long, as Thor was quickly overrun, and the Asgardian soon found himself praying that his friends would return with a key to victory soon. Otherwise, he was going to be in for a world of trouble.

* * *

"Let me down! We have to go back for them," Sora shouted as he continued trying to get Hulk to let him off this sudden ride.

"Only if you've suddenly learned to fly without your fancy motorbike, and if you get a clue," Hulk insisted as they came crashing down on the ground again. "Face facts, Sora: we can't do anything to help right now, and if we want to stop the Leader, we need to be stronger _and_ smarter. We can't just go in with fists, swords, and powers swinging this time. I've learned that the hard way several times over after dealing with him."

Sora wanted to argue, to say that they could have done something to help the Avengers and SHIELD agents, but he knew that right now, they could not. Hulk was right; Leader had planned for all of this, made them think that they had stopped him when he was just setting up for his real scheme, and they all fell for it. Plus, the others had said that Leader was just as smart as the Hulk was strong, so if they wanted to save the others and the world, then Hulk probably was making the right call in getting them away from the fight they had been caught in so that they could better plan a counterattack. Sora did not like it, mainly because this all seemed a little too much like the day his home was lost to darkness, but he could see the logic behind Hulk's thinking. Besides, unlike the Destiny Islands, this world was not lost yet, and it definitely had not been lost to the Heartless, so they could still save it, and that was exactly what he and the Hulk were going to do.

Seeing that his friend had finally calmed down, Hulk slowly let Sora off his back again, when he spotted something off in the distance, and immediately pointed it out to his spiky haired friend. Turning his gaze in that direction, Sora used his helmet's scanners to zoom in and get a better look at the object, and immediately gasped in recognition soon afterwards. "We might have a little more help than you think, but only if we can get to them fast enough! Come on," Sora stated as he raced off in the direction of the object, his Keyblade already summoned into his hand.

Hulk could only give Sora a confused look, but if the kid thought that they were going to find help, he was not going to say no. Hey, even the strongest hero there is needs an extra hand now and then, and they definitely needed a few more hands if they were going to stop the Leader, so Hulk followed after his otherworldly friend. He started to rethink that idea when he saw who Sora had raced over to help, because he remembered this particular pair very well. "Hulk remembers you two," the jade giant snarled. "Stupid arrow man and spy girl!"

"Hey, easy, Hulk, I know Hawkeye's a criminal, but Black Widow's on our side," Sora reassured the big guy. "She's one of the people who helped me out when I first appeared on the Helicarrier."

Indeed, there before the two Avengers, squaring off with one another with weapons at the ready to fire, were none other than the former partners, Hawkeye and Black Widow. Once SHIELD's best tag-team, now enemies on opposite sides, and judging by the slightly banged up Sky-Cycle nearby, along with the recently cut ropes, it seemed pretty clear that the archer was the reason why the two were here. The two agents only spared the pair of Avengers a small glance, not willing to take their eyes off of the other for even a second, but it was just long enough to confirm who had just appeared to them, and Natasha was the first of the two to acknowledge the Avengers' presence, starting with the one she was a little more familiar with. At least in terms of people she's interacted with outside of a mission.

"Sora, your timing couldn't be better," Natasha called out while doing her best to keep her guard up. "Hawkeye ambushed me while I was on an assignment and was just about to…"

Before she could finish, Black Widow was hit in the chest with an electric arrow and dropped down to the ground, completely unconscious. Seeing that definitely got Sora mad, because while he may not have really interacted with the redhead for long, or even all that much, he still liked to think he could consider her a friend, and he had already had to leave quite a few friends to get hurt or worse today. Apparently, Hulk shared that feeling, given the way he was growling at the archer responsible, but just when they were about to attack, Hawkeye dropped his bow on the ground between them. He then reached over to remove his quiver from his back and dropped that as well, confusing the two even more, even as he raised his hands up and said, "I surrender."

A brief look was exchanged between Sora and Hulk before the former finally gave voice to their confusion. "What gives," the Keyblade Samurai asked. "You give us the run around for weeks, nearly put an arrow through one of our friends, attack your former partner, and now you're just giving up like it's no big deal? I thought you HYDRA agents were supposed to fight to the end or something like that."

"First off, I was never actually going to fire that arrow at Wasp. It was really just more of a scare tactic. Second, yeah, HYDRA agents do fight to the end like that, but I'm not a HYDRA agent. _She_ is," Hawkeye revealed, indicating Black Widow with his eyes, confusing both heroes even more. "Black Widow was going to sell off a sample of Hulk's blood to HYDRA to be weaponized, and when I caught her in the act, she set me up to take the fall in her place. The minute I got out of the Vault, I had spent the last few weeks tracking her down, along with anything I could get my hands on to prove my innocence and Natasha's guilt."

Sora was not sure what to think now. Looking back, he did remember that Widow had been pretty cold when they first met, and did not really come off as being incredibly friendly, but he was sure that she and Agent Hill were the ones who had helped when he first landed on the Helicarrier. Was that all just part of the act she was putting on as part of her cover? Then again, how could he really take Hawkeye at his word? The guy was a criminal, but what if he had been framed? Normally, Sora probably would have been able to tell one way or the other, easily, but in this case, it was hard for him to know anything for sure. Eventually, Sora just looked over at Hulk, wondering if his big green friend had any ideas to know if the archer was telling the truth, because he was just far too lost to know for sure.

Hulk stomped over to Hawkeye, glaring down at him all the while, but the archer did not waver at all, and kept his gaze and his posture completely steady. Hulk knew that if Hawkeye was lying, he would be able to get the archer to spill it just by doing what he was currently doing, but Hawkeye just kept on staring up at him. Eventually, Hulk just huffed and said, "You came to visit Banner in the Cube once, wondering why I helped save a jet full of SHIELD agents when I could've made a run for it."

"Yeah, and I don't think I ever got a straight answer on that question, either," Hawkeye reminded him.

Hulk continued to glare down at the archer before he finally said, "Probably because of the same reason why you're not running now that you've got what you were after." With his piece said, Hulk stood up straight again, walked over to Sora, and said, "Help Cupid tie up stupid spy girl, and then see if he's got anything else to prove she's a traitor besides a sample of my blood."

Sora was still a bit unsure about this, but if the Hulk was willing to trust Hawkeye on this, he was not going to argue. From what he could tell, the big guy had more experience with these two than Sora had, and judging by what was just said, it sounded like these two had some history beyond just meeting in the midst of a mission to capture Hulk, so maybe the archer could be trusted. Besides, there was a good chance that Hulk would have punched him if he said no, and Sora was not too willing to be on the receiving end of that.

After helping to tie up Black Widow, Hawkeye showed the two Avengers some video footage of the redhead making a deal with HYDRA agents, and that was what really confirmed that Hawkeye was indeed on their side, but Sora still could not figure out why she would help him back when he first appeared on the Helicarrier if she really was one of the bad guys. Hawkeye had said that Widow was a master spy for a reason and that he should not feel too bad about being tricked by her when he asked the archer, but that did not make Sora feel any better. When Black Widow finally started coming around, it was no surprise to anyone that Sora and Hulk were both glaring at her just as fiercely as her former partner was because of that detail.

Seeing her current situation and knowing that she had to get out of there, Natasha immediately started to trying to reach one of her knives, only to stop short when everyone suddenly heard the Leader's voice coming from the radio on Hawkeye's Sky-Cycle. _"Attention, humanity,"_ Leader calmly called out.

"That's a restricted SHIELD frequency," Hawkeye informed the other two.

"Too bad that's not a SHIELD agent using it," Sora added as they all turned to the image that was being produced by the holographic projector.

"Humph. You ask me, it's probably a good thing for everyone that he isn't a SHIELD agent. The whole organization would probably collapse under the weight of his ego alone," Hulk huffed in jest.

That got a smile onto Sora and Hawkeye's faces, but they were quickly wiped away as Leader continued his announcement to the world. _"I come to you with a message, and that message is 'Do not be scared.' The Gamma Dome that has formed in the American southwest is no threat. It is a promise. It is going to change the world for the better. You are weak. You suffer with your small minds and fragile bodies, and you have plunged the world into darkness with your faults."_

"Pretty sure I'd have noticed if this world was being plunged into darkness," Sora quietly muttered, only to get shushed by both Hawkeye and Hulk a minute later. Apparently, they were hoping that they would get something useful out of Leader's monologue.

 _"But I am here to save you. I will remake the world in my image. I will remake_ you _in my image. You will be perfect, like me, and I will think your thoughts for you. The Gamma energy will grow to envelope the Earth and you will be transformed. Your power will be my power. Accept your future, for I am your Leader. Welcome to Gamma World!"_

The three heroes and SHIELD traitor all just narrowed their eyes as Leader's message finally ended and the hologram switched off. The man was definitely insane if he thought anyone was really going to let him get away with this plan of his. Thankfully, there were three people right here who had no intention of letting the Leader remake the world in anyway, or of letting him enslave anyone. Of course, Hawkeye felt that he had to be sure of something before they made any moves.

"You're part of this, aren't you," Hawkeye accused, though a small bit of him was hoping that she would say no so that he could at least know that she was not this far gone.

"Don't be stupid. HYDRA has as much to lose as anyone if that maniac takes over the world," Widow snapped back in kind, keeping a hard glare on the archer while she did. When she turned to Hulk and Sora though, her expression did soften up a little, and she guessed, "The Avengers were inside that dome, weren't they?"

"…Yeah," Sora confirmed with a sad nod, while Hulk just kept quiet. Even so, they could all still see that the jade giant was just as upset about that as Sora was. Any sad feeling Sora had though seemed to get pushed away though, for the most part, as the kid quickly perked up and said, "But we're gonna be able to save them. After all, so long as any one of us is still able to fight, we're not gonna let the Leader win."

"Love the optimism, kid, but how do you propose we do that," Hawkeye asked.

"Simple," Sora shrugged. "Thor wasn't mutated like the other Avengers, so he should be ready to fight when we go after the Leader, and besides, we've got the best gamma scientist in the world on our side."

The other three just stared at Sora like he had grown a second head for a minute, until Hawkeye finally caught on and smacked his head for not realizing it sooner. "Duh. Banner," the archer exclaimed.

Apparently, Hulk did not like that idea, because he was soon growling at the other two heroes like they had just kicked his puppy and said, "Banner's not home. We don't need him to stop Leader!"

"Look, Hulk, I get that you're a lot smarter and tougher than people give you credit for, but it's like I said a while back, there are some ways in which Bruce can help more people than you can, just like there are ways that you can help more people than him. Well right now, if we want to stop the Leader, we're going to need Bruce Banner more than we need the Hulk. If only for a few hours at most," Sora tried to reason.

Hulk did not seem like he was going to budge on this, given that he had quickly crossed his arms and turned away from Sora in a huff, so, Hawkeye decided that he should take a shot at convincing the big guy to let Banner out. It was probably going to get him smashed, but right now, they did not have the time to being playing nice. "All right, listen, Bigfoot," the archer snapped, startling Hulk a little and making Sora and Widow both fear for his safety with every word he spoke after that. "We don't have time for you to be getting an attitude just because big brother is able to help more than you, so if you don't give us Bruce Banner in the next three seconds, bottom line? I will take you down, and make Banner come out myself."

At that point, the whole area had gone silent, save for the sounds of the approaching Gamma Dome, with Widow and Sora both gaping at Hawkeye. The redhead did not doubt Hawkeye's skills, and Sora knew that this guy was one of SHIELD's best for a reason, but from where they were standing, he was not likely to be able to take down the Hulk on his own. What made this even more unbelievable was that Hawkeye did not seem to doubt his claim in the least bit. Hulk must have seen that the archer was being completely serious too, and it did not look like he was going to lose any of that confidence any time soon. Sure, Hawkeye had helped to take him down once before, but that was mainly because he had help from Widow, and Hulk to stop and save the jet that Hawkeye's crew was in before it had crashed, so he doubted that the archer could win in a straight up fight against him.

With all of this in mind, Hulk did the only rational thing someone could do after hearing a guy with a bow and arrow threaten the strongest being on Earth. He burst out into gut wrenching laughter, and Sora was not too far behind him in that amusement. The two laughed, and laughed, and eventually started laughing so hard that Hulk had to hold his sides in order to try and stave off the pain his laughter was causing, while Sora almost dropped to the ground he was laughing so hard, while a few tears almost started to fall from his eyes. In fact, Sora was laughing so hard, he had almost missed how Hulk's loud, boisterous laughter changed into that a much more subdued, quiet person's chuckles, but the minute he realized they had, he immediately started trying to get himself under control just long enough to see what had happened.

There, standing before the group, was none other than Bruce Banner himself, pulling up and tightening the torn pair of pants that Hulk was wearing before in an effort to keep his only article of clothing on as he started to calm down from his chuckles. "Oh…Okay. You'll have to give me a minute. He hasn't let me out in a long time," Bruce panted. He then looked to the other two and said, "Now, Agent Barton, if you're serious about helping us stop this, then I'll need you to give me a lift. There's a place nearby that should have all the equipment we'll need if we want to stop the Leader."

"How do you know that," Sora asked.

"I'll explain once we're there," Bruce informed Sora while making his way to Hawkeye's Sky-Cycle.

"Wait, what about the kid? Isn't he going to need a ride," Hawkeye asked. His question was quickly answered when he heard Sora summon his Keyblade, and he turned just in time to see the kid transform said blade into his Keyblade Glider before hopping aboard.

"I'm good. I'll just follow after you guys," Sora informed the archer, who was only able to nod in reply, having been too stunned by what he just saw to speak. At least for a few minutes.

"Nice," Hawkeye finally complimented with a smirk after he regained his voice and collected his weapons. "Wish I could do that with my bow."

It was at that point that Widow realized that the boys were not making any moves to bring her along, and she finally found her own voice again too. "Wait a minute. You're going to need my help," Widow called out to them. "If we move fast enough, we can all…"

"What do you mean 'we,' traitor," Hawkeye snapped, startling the redhead with his angry outburst. "If you seriously think I'm going to trust you to not shoot us in the back the minute everything's said and done, then clearly your head's a little more messed up from the electric arrow I hit you with earlier than I thought."

Widow immediately looked to Sora after hearing that, and said, "You can't seriously be okay with this, can you? I helped Fury and Hill save your life when you first showed up. You owe me for that."

Sora just looked at her evenly, before he sighed and said, "We should at least move her to somewhere that she'll be safe from the Gamma Dome for a little while longer."

"Yeah, we don't have the time for that, and she'll likely have figured out a way to escape by the time we finally dump her off," Hawkeye argued. He then sent his former partner another look and said, "Besides, she's one of the deadliest people on the planet, kid. If we give her even a little wiggle room, she'll take us all down before we can blink."

Sora doubted that anyone could be that good, but given how serious Hawkeye looked when he said that, he had a feeling that the guy was not exaggerating. Or at least not by that much, so Sora just nodded and prepared to move out, much to Natasha's dismay. "Come back here," Widow shouted angrily as she struggled to stand up, even though she was still tied up. "You can't leave me like this!"

Upon hearing that, Sora switched his glider out for his Keyblade again, aimed it at the redhead and said, "Maybe not, but I think we can leave you like this. Stop!" A minute later, any hopping around or struggling that Black Widow had been doing up to that point came to an end with the sound of a clock chime, indicating that Sora's spell worked this time. That did not stop the kid from leveling Kingdom Key with a look. "Sure, _now_ you want to do the spell."

"Hey, if it keeps her from getting away a little longer, I'm not complaining too much," Hawkeye shrugged. He then shot a smirk at the redhead and said, "Look on the bright side, Widow. Your new green skin will match your eyes."

"She does seem like she would have the temper for it," Bruce noted as he made sure he was secure on the back of the Sky-Cycle, and with that, the three took off, following the directions that Bruce was giving to Hawkeye, and leaving a frozen Natasha in their wake, who could only growl mentally at the state she had been left in while glancing at the approaching Gamma Dome in worry from the corner of her eye.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the center of Las Vegas, Thor and Samson had just been dumped before the Leader, both heavily injured and tired, but still alive all the same. At least for the most part, but only because the Leader needed at least one of the two able to answer some of the rare questions that he could not answer himself. He was going to get those answers sooner than anticipated, as Thor started to come around, being able to recover a little more quickly thanks to his Asgardian physiology. Of course, the blonde also quickly noticed that he was missing something very important. "My hammer," Thor groaned, not feeling Mjolnir's familiar weight anywhere on his person. "Where…"

"Ah, yes. It is quite curious," Leader stated in a tone that would make one think he was actually impressed with something. Of course, it could be that he was at least a little intrigued, but he was most likely not ever going to admit that. "My Wrecking Crew could not lift your weapon, even with their strength enhanced by my gamma boosters, and of all the Avengers, you and the boy with the odd, key-shaped weapon were not affected by my gamma energy. Now tell me, why is that?"

"Only those worthy of the thunder may wield Mjolnir, villain," Thor proudly declared, now knowing full well why he was here, but he did not plan on giving Leader anything that he did not need to know. "And as for your 'energy,' mortal science holds no fear for an Asgardian."

"That only explains you, Asgardian, but it does not explain why the boy was unaffected," Leader countered. "He is clearly not like you, and is just as obviously very human, and yet he was not transformed by my gamma energy, so why is it that he is immune?"

At that point, Thor could not hold back a brief chuckle as he replied, "You may be even madder than I originally believed if you believe that your energy could possibly pose any threat to one who wields the Keyblade. The powers he wields are greater than any even the most accomplished of Asgardian warriors and sorcerers could ever hope to comprehend, let alone a troll such as you, even without them even realizing it."

Thor knew that he may have been overselling it a little, which was just as likely to put Sora in danger as it was to keep him out of it, and that he was only making a guess as to why the wielder of Kingdom Key was immune to the Gamma Dome's effects, but it was not like he could really say anything else. Apparently, his answer did not seem to satisfy Leader, as he stated, "Very well. It does not matter if you know or not, or even if you're willing to give me the answers. I will find them in time, and correct the flaw that he is in my coming world. As for you, I suppose if gamma energy has no effect on a thunder god, then you will simply have to serve as entertainment."

A moment later, Samson was yanked away from the room, with Thor unable to tell where the scientist had been taken, and the Asgardian was just seconds away from calling his trusted hammer to him when he was suddenly tackled and then pummeled into the floor by the gamma villain that he had seen earlier in Coulson's briefing: Abomination. From that point on, Thor had to endure taking a beating from the hideous gamma villain, all the while attempting to concentrate long enough to call his hammer to him. Unfortunately, he knew that meant he would need to do whatever he could to keep both villains distracted, and there was only one way to keep Leader's attention occupied: to keep him talking. If there was one thing that Thor knew about tyrants like Leader, it was that they loved to hear their own voices.

"You call yourself Leader, but what gives you the right to lead this world," Thor demanded after picking himself up off the floor. "You defeat your enemies with trickery, with the strength of others! You have no honor."

"You wish me to talk," Leader asked, though whether he knew what Thor was doing or not, it was hard to say, because he quickly granted the request. "Fine. Why should I lead humanity? I am the most advanced mind the world has ever seen. I think on a level normal human beings cannot begin to comprehend. Look at this world, Asgardian. Mankind is on the brink of destruction. They need me."

 _'Why do they always enjoy talking this much,'_ Thor wondered to himself. Even if listening to Leader drone on and on did help keep the two villains occupied while he concentrated on his hammer, this one fact about such tyrants still left him rather baffled after all these centuries.

* * *

As it turned out, the place that Banner was directing his group to was an old cabin in the nearby forest that he had set up some lab equipment with, and even from their very amateur perspective, Hawkeye and Sora could tell that it was incredibly impressive for someone who had been spending his time avoiding various organizations like Ross and SHIELD at the time when he had set it up. "Wow. You did all this while you were on the run," Hawkeye finally whistled in admiration after a few minutes of letting Bruce work in silence.

"Yes, and don't touch anything, either of you," Bruce cautioned from the computer. "That especially goes for you, Sora."

"What? Why are you giving me more grief than Hawkeye," Sora protested, while the former SHIELD agent in question just smirked at the kid.

Bruce paused for only a moment to give Sora a small look that held steady as he asked, "Remember how hard a time you had figuring out how to use the basic functions of a smartphone?"

In response, Sora just let out a long moan before he replied, "For the tenth time that was not my fault! How was I supposed to know that particular app Tony put on the phone was connected to the mansion's defense systems? More to the point, why would Tony have put an app that controls the mansion's defense systems on my phone in the first place?"

Hearing all of this, Hawkeye was not sure if he should be laughing or feeling very worried about the kid's technical skills, but he knew one thing for sure: this scenario that the two were talking about was probably one of those things that one should not ask about. He was still going to make some kind of joke at the kid's expense though. "Shouldn't you know all about the latest tech that all kids in middle school use these days," Hawkeye questioned.

"I'm fourteen, and in high school, for one thing," Sora retorted. "And second of all, it's not my fault that I'm not really able to do…much with technology, but I've never really needed to before."

"Uh-huh. What, were you raised on a deserted island or something," Hawkeye asked.

"Well not a deserted island, but…"

"Can we focus, please," Banner interrupted before the two got to the point where they were tearing each other's heads off, all while turning back to his computer again. "Agent Barton's Sky-Cycle collected quite a bit of data about the gamma energy the dome was putting off, and with the scans that the scanners in your helmet made, Sora, I think I've just about got a few things figured out."

"What can I say? SHIELD likes to be thorough," Hawkeye shrugged before turning to the kid again. "But how come your helmet was getting a bunch of scans without you knowing it?"

"Well, Tony said he made the thing to give me a little more protection when we're out in the field, so, I guess a bunch of different scanners were part of that," Sora reasoned. "Guess SHIELD aren't the only ones who like being thorough."

Hawkeye would have commented on that had Bruce not suddenly jabbed a needle into his arm. "OW! Hey! What'd you do that for," Barton demanded.

"I just inoculated you," Bruce explained. "That will temporarily protect you from the Leader's gamma energy."

"So how come you're not stabbing the kid, too," Barton questioned.

"He won't need it. Apparently, Sora's powers make him gamma proof," Banner revealed.

When Hawkeye gave Sora a look of question, clearly seeking confirmation, Sora just shrugged and said, "It was pretty surprising for me too, because I thought for sure I was going to turn into some kind of mindless monster when my gamma armor was destroyed. No offense to you or Hulk, Bruce."

"None taken by either of us," Bruce reassured while he began packing one of his bags. "We're gonna have to do some of this en route. There's not much time. The longer people are exposed the energy, the more likely the changes will become permanent."

"So I guess we just gotta smash the gamma energy core again, like we did at the Cube, right," Sora figured.

"You would be correct, and it will be at the epicenter of the dome with the Leader, which I've already located," Bruce revealed, bringing up the location in question on his computer screen.

"Well, you've just got all the answers don't you," Hawkeye stated sarcastically. "So how are we gonna get to the Leader?"

Bruce then turned to Hawkeye and smirked as his eyes began to glow green and he replied, "The direct route."

"So basically, you're gonna get angry while I follow you guys there on my Keyblade Glider, right," Sora asked, just to make sure.

"Nope, you'll be riding the Hulk express with Hawkeye, Sora," Bruce revealed while his skin slowly started to turn green like his eyes. "Besides, that's actually the secret. I'm always angry."

A minute later, Hulk was smashing out through the roof of the cabin, with both Hawkeye and Sora clinging onto his back for dear life. Despite what Hawkeye would say later though, Hulk would definitely back Sora up in saying that the girlish scream that could likely be heard for miles had, in fact, come from the archer.

* * *

Thor had finally had enough of being Abomination's punching bag, and the next time that Blonsky threw a punch, the Asgardian easily caught it, and then decked the former soldier turned gamma villain clear across the room. Were he any other man, Leader might have been impressed, and maybe a little worried, but instead, he continued to sit calmly in his chair far from Thor's reach. "You cannot win, you must know that," Leader told Thor, apparently not at all bothered by Abomination's sudden defeat.

"I disagree, villain," Thor confidently stated. Mere seconds after Thor had voiced his disagreement, Thor's mighty hammer had flown through the window and into his hand, unleashing a lightning strike outside the moment it touched Thor's hand. "I played your game long enough for me to retrieve Mjolnir, and now your game is over!" Before he could even start to charge or even pull back for a throw, the floor seemed to suddenly spring up and slowly encompass him, while the Leader just smirked in amusement. "What manner of…"

"You feeble-minded fool," Leader openly mocked. "Of course I wanted you to retrieve your hammer. I let you do it."

The Asgardian was confused for a moment, until one particular name from the Avengers' most wanted list came to his mind, and his eyes widened in realization as he realized why the Leader would do that. It was too little, too late now though, as the substance holding him suddenly unwrapped and formed a hand a top Mjolnir revealing the Absorbing Man. "Nice hammer," the gamma villain complimented as he absorbed the material of Mjolnir and transformed his whole body into it. "Now let me show you why they call me the Absorbing Man."

The minute Absorbing Man's body was completely covered in Mjolnir's material, he seemed to flash with electricity, all while the Leader declared, "You asked before what gives me the right to rule? Because no one can stop me."

Absorbing Man and Abomination then began knocking Thor back and forth between them while said the Thunderer did his best to try and fight back, all while he had to listen to the Leader continue to drone on, "In fourteen point seven hours my gamma dome will have covered half the planet. In another eleven point four three hours, the entire world will be engulfed! Anyone within the dome is mine to command. You have lost, Asgardian."

Thor snarled in response as he slammed his hammer against Abomination and shouted, "Never!"

Thor was then tackled and sent plummeting to the streets below by Absorbing Man, sending several of the mutated citizens flying away when they crashed. Leader did not seem too worried, as he simply continued from where he had left off, saying, "And without the Avengers, who is left to stand against me?"

"There is that brat with the key sword for one," Abomination pointed out.

Leader just scoffed at that idea, and said, "Please. What threat can a mere child ever hope to pose against me?"

His question was soon answered, when the floor suddenly exploded behind him, and Hawkeye, Sora, and the Hulk leapt up with weapons and fists primed and ready for action. "You, with the head. Freeze," Hawkeye shouted.

"Doesn't matter if it's figuratively or literally. Your head's going back in its jar either way," Sora quipped.

"Hey nice," Hawkeye admitted with a smile, not taking his eyes off Leader. "Did you just come up with that, or were you holding it in for a while?"

"Actually, I overheard Yuffie saying it to herself when we first moved to go in the Cube. I'm pretty sure she was saving it ever since we saw his mug shot, but since she's not really able to say it herself at the moment, I figured, why not," Sora reasoned.

Leader just ignored the two as he turned his attention to the Hulk and said, "I knew you would come eventually, my old enemy, but you of all people must realize this is for the best. In Gamma World, no one will hunt you, no one will try and cure you, you'll be a king. Everyone who hated you, who attacked you, they will be you. Are you _really_ going to try and stop me?"

"No," Hulk responded, bringing a look of worry to Hawkeye's face. Sora on the other hand, did not seem the least bit worried at all. In fact, he just kept smiling, almost like he knew what was going to come next, and from the way his grin widened a little at Hulk's next words, it seemed that he was right. "Not stop you; SMASH you!"

"Disappointing, but not unexpected," Leader sighed. A minute later, Abomination had leapt at the Hulk and knocked him to the ground.

"You ready animal? With the Leader's tech I'm stronger than you, I'm smarter than you, and I'm gonna beat you to a…"

Anything more that Abomination was going to say was lost in the din of Hulk's roar as he kicked Blonsky through the ceiling and then leaped after him. Seeing that the Hulk had things under control there, Hawkeye and Sora immediately attacked at the Leader, only for Hawkeye's arrow to be intercepted by Gamma Panther, and the ice spell that Sora shot off to be intercepted by Gamma Wasp's stingers. "You're both either very brave or very stupid, archer and boy," Leader commented as the other Gamma Avengers stepped forward to face Sora and Hawkeye. "You're vastly outnumbered."

"That's okay. I've got an arrow for each of you," Hawkeye promised as he notched another arrow, even as Gamma Wasp flew right at him.

A minute later, a clock chime was heard, and Gamma Wasp was suddenly frozen in the air, making Leader turn to see Sora aiming his Keyblade at his mutated teammate with a smirk on his face as he stated, "And I'm the perfect guy to help set up his shots."

Hawkeye did not hesitate to fire on the immobilized Wasp, and both he and Sora both quickly leapt out of the way before they were crushed by either Gamma Captain America or Gamma Yuffie. Leaping into the air while spinning around, Hawkeye fired another arrow at the captain's leg, and easily struck his target, but he could not seem to get a clear shot on Gamma Yuffie since she was moving around so much, but Sora easily helped take care of that when he used another ice spell to freeze her in place, giving Hawkeye the chance to land a shot on the gamma ninja's exposed arm, and leaving Sora to engage Gamma Panther and Gamma Iron Man, just to make sure that they did not stop the archer.

"What do you think you are accomplishing," Leader demanded. "Your toys and tricks cannot hurt my creations."

"They're not your creations; they're _my_ friends that you've mutated into monsters so that you could control them like puppets," Sora angrily retorted, just itching to throw out a bolt of lightning right at Leader's oversized head.

"But you're not entirely wrong," Hawkeye admitted. "Neither one of us are geniuses like you, so it's a good thing that we know one, and he made me some new arrows." He and Sora both had to smirk as they turned around just in time to see Wasp change back to normal before collapsing on the ground, though Sora's smile was tinged with a bit more relief than Hawkeye's at the sight, since he was glad that his friends were going to be okay. "His name is Bruce Banner. Maybe you've heard of him?"

"Indeed I have," Leader snarled. He then tapped a control on his console, and his perch then retracted to reveal that he was sitting in a large, battle suit that closed up the minute it was ready for action.

"Oh crap," was the most that Sora could say at the sight of this new problem.

Hawkeye had to agree with the kid on that sentiment. Sure, Cap had returned to normal just a few seconds after Wasp, and Yuffie was likely well on her way, even if she had just busted out of the ice she had been trapped in, but there was no way that they could handle dealing with two Gamma-ed up Avengers and Leader's robot suit at once. At least, that was what the archer was thinking until Sora suddenly stepped forward with Keyblade in hand and confidence in his eyes as he fixed a glare on the Leader.

"You handle getting the others back to normal, along with any other gamma bruisers that Leader might have in here, Hawkeye. I'll keep Cucumber-Boy busy," Sora ordered the archer.

"You sure, kid," Hawkeye asked, very skeptical about Sora's chances. "I mean, you're not exactly my first pick for dealing with a mega genius in a robot suit."

"Hey, island boy, remember," Sora asked, still grinning confidently. "I've swam with fish that were bigger and more dangerous than a glorified geek in a tin can."

That seemed to settle it for Hawkeye, if the smirk he gained was any indication, though it could also have been that he found Sora's last statement funny, but either way, he was not complaining about not having to fight against the deadly robot. All he had to do was land a hit each of the remaining Gamma Avengers with his newest arrows, and anyone else that was infected by the Gamma Dome's radiation. Not even the least bit hard for the world's greatest marksman, and a much easier job than dealing with Leader and his toy, but when the two charged, a part of him did feel a little bad for letting Sora take on the hard job.

A minute later, any ill feelings he had about letting Sora fight the Leader alone were gone, and in their place was only pity for the Leader, himself, because Sora was definitely not giving the gamma villain a break. The kid was slashing, bashing, and shooting at Leader's robot with everything that he could throw, and any openings that the Leader may have seen in Sora's defenses were barely there for more than a few seconds, or long enough for the gamma villain to take advantage of them. It was really a moment of showing that Sora's training with the other Avengers was paying off very nicely, but what Hawkeye found even more impressive were the powers that Sora was packing. Not only was he fast and dealing way more damage than he should be able to with his weapon, but he was also shooting fire, ice, and lightning like it was nothing, and at some points, Hawkeye could have sworn that the kid had even teleported a few times in order to avoid some of Leader's attacks before retaliating. If Hawkeye was not at least a little impressed with the kid before, he definitely was now, but he figured it would be better to compliment the kid after they had saved the world, so he quickly made it a point to set his sights on the Leader as well once he had nailed the last Gamma Avenger with one of his arrows. He could not let Sora have all the fun for himself, you know.

* * *

Up on the roof, Hulk and Abomination were fairly evenly matched in their struggle against each other, until Blonsky decided to up the power of his gamma enhancer and suddenly became much bigger than the Hulk. In no time at all, Abomination had the Hulk pinned down beneath his feet and he then declared, "I'll always beat you Hulk. Do you hear me? I'm better than you in every way!"

"But I've got a couple of things that you don't," Hulk retorted. He then glanced off to the side and smirked as he said, "Friends and backup."

A minute later, Abomination's head was hit with a gamma arrow, courtesy of Hawkeye, and he was knocked off the Hulk by a fire blast from Sora. The minute he had pulled Hawkeye's arrow off of him, it was already too late, and Abomination had already started changing back to his normal state without the gamma enhancer, just in time for Sora to rush in with his newest ability, which he had dubbed as Sonic Blade to further disorient him, and Hulk to send him flying across the city and into the desert with a hard punch. Just then, the two heroes all raced over to Hulk, just in time to avoid the Leader's robot as it landed across from them. "The three of you think you can defeat me," Leader demanded. "I have already calculated a thousand ways to destroy you all!"

"Then why haven't you used any of them," Sora mocked in turn.

Leader would have roared in anger had he not noticed a rather large shadow suddenly fall over him, and he looked up just in time to see Absorbing Man flying towards him, until the element absorber crashed through the dome of his robot, and knocked them both down onto the roof, with Absorbing Man now out cold. "Perhaps it is because he does not even know the meaning of the word 'destroy,'" Thor suggested as he floated down to his allies, battered, but triumphant in his struggle.

Hulk grunted a little as a show of how funny he thought Thor's comment was, before he fixed his glare on the massive gamma generator that had been set up on top of the building and growled, "You really want to hurt the Leader? This is how."

The other three then watched as Hulk pried the generator off the building, causing a massive feedback to run through the device Leader was wearing on his head in order to control the gamma creatures inside the dome, and increasing the size of his head even more than it probably should have been, even after his transformation. Once the tower was completely pulled out from the tower roof, the Gamma Dome immediately dispersed, and Hulk turned and tossed it as high as he could. Considering how much strength he had put into his throw, the jade giant was sure that the gamma generator was likely in orbit at least, but as long as it was gone and incapable of harming anyone again, Hulk did not care. All that they had to worry about now was making sure that Leader stayed put until SHIELD sent in a team to contain him.

"It would have been glorious," Leader moaned in dismay, drawing the heroes' attention to him as he griped over his defeat. "I was creating the perfect world, all in my image."

"That's the problem. You're ugly," Hulk stated.

"Plus, I'm pretty sure that Hulk's the only one of us that looks good in green," Sora joked.

"No kidding. I tried it once, and let me tell you, I had nightmares for weeks after I got a look at my reflection," Hawkeye continued on, and that got the two to exchange a fist-bump. Clearly, a new friendship had been formed, but neither Hulk nor Thor were surprised. Sora just had that effect with people be they friend or former foe.

* * *

A few hours later, the true clean-up was underway, and the Avengers who were infected by the gamma dome were now being double checked by medics as Samson was wheeled off to a medical facility. Though he did give the Avengers a thumbs up as he passed them, and that made them all sure that the gamma scientist would be okay. Meanwhile, Hawkeye was sitting off to the side as Coulson and Daisy checked over the video footage from Hawkeye's Sky-Cycle, until they finally turned to the archer as the friendly agent said, "The footage from your Sky-Cycle confirms your story. The Widow is working for HYDRA. I sent agents to her location, but she was already long gone."

"Yeah, she's good, I'll give her that," Hawkeye admitted.

"Well, you're cleared Hawkeye, and your SHIELD special agent status will be reinstated. Congrats," Daisy then said.

"You mean the same SHIELD that locked me up," Hawkeye then asked rhetorically. "Yeah, no thanks. I'm going after the Widow on my own."

"Here's another option," Tony then said as he walked over. "Join the Avengers."

Hawkeye glanced at the recovering heroes before he said, "I don't think so. Look how easily the Leader took you guys out. I'm better off on my own."

"Trust me, you should save yourself some trouble and just accept the offer to join," Hulk told the archer. When Hawkeye just looked to Hulk in confusion, the big guy simply said, "If you don't agree now, Sora will just chase after you and find some way to convince you to stay. He already did that to me when I tried to quit, and I'm still here, now."

"A fact that we are all truly grateful for, my friend," Thor informed Hulk. "You've saved both the Avengers and the world, despite any grievances that have been done onto you. I am honored and very glad to call you as both an ally and a friend."

Hulk just smirked in return, gently elbowing Thor to show his thanks, but Hawkeye paid it little mind, as he just zeroed his gaze on the youngest member of the Avengers. Did this kid really convince Hulk to stay with the Avengers when he considered quitting once? And more than that, just how much power did the kid have? Clearly it had to be a lot, given what Hawkeye had already seen, and he would admit that he was a little curious about Sora. All the same, that curiosity was not going to help him track down Black Widow, and that was Hawkeye's priority. He was about to tell the team that, when Sora stepped up to give his own voice on the matter.

"Come on, Hawkeye," Sora happily prompted. "You can't tell me you wouldn't like having a roof over your head, a lot of serious backup for when you're looking for Widow, or access to a lot of cool tech and resources that would be a huge help in finding her, can you? Besides, me and Hulk trusted you to have our backs when we had little reason to, so how about returning the favor and trusting us to help you out? It always helps to have your friends by your side, you know."

Hawkeye just rolled his eyes at the Keybearer and said, "Yeah, that whole friends to the end thing only works in fairy tales and movies, Island Boy. In real life, the only real strength you can depend on is your own, so have fun living in fantasy land."

Sora was about to protest, until Hulk placed a hand on the kid's shoulder, taking special care to not be too rough with the boy, and said, "Hey, if he wants to go let him. Not like we couldn't stop Cupid at any time we wanted any way."

A minute later, Sora could not help but smirk, because Hulk's statement definitely had the desired effect. The minute he heard that last sentence, Hawkeye was spinning right around and marching up to the big guy to shout, "You want to go, Jade Jaws? Right here and now? Let's do this!"

"Pft, please. He would flatten you before you even drew an arrow," Yuffie scoffed.

"I know, right. You should've heard him earlier when he said that he would 'take Hulk down' if he didn't let Bruce out to help us," Sora teased.

"Hey, watch it, Island boy, and you that goes double for you, wannabe ninja," Hawkeye retorted.

"Who're you calling a wannabe?! I'm a full-fledged, awesome ninja with skills that you could only dream of having," Yuffie snapped back.

"Okay, this is gonna be fun," Tony mused to himself.

"Hey, as long as it gets us another new teammate that can handle himself against the kind of things we deal with, I'm not complaining," Sora smiled, and he knew that the others would agree with him on that. Hawkeye did deserve a second chance, and when he was not being a jerk, he did seem like a pretty cool guy to be around. Plus, considering how he was able to get the better of the team and even beat most of the Avengers while they were juiced up on gamma rays, why would they not want him on the team?

* * *

Out in the desert, Abomination was crawling across the sand, feeling completely drained of his gamma power after his battle with the Hulk, Hawkeye, and Keyblade Samurai, and having only just recovered from the final blow that had rendered him unconscious for so long, when he suddenly paused at being covered by the shadows of five people, one of which said, "Well, isn't this a pathetic sight. Guess you shouldn't have thrown your cards in with that wannabe. Still, you do seem to have a bit of potential, so, what would you say to joining the real big leagues?"

Abomination looked up to see Night Hunter, who had been the one that had spoken up, Baron Zemo, Enchantress, Executioner, Simon Williams, now known as Wonder Man, and Crimson Dynamo all standing before him, as the baron said, "Hello Mister Blonsky."

* * *

 ** _AN: You guys taking a break from beating up Xehanort?_**

 ** _Sora: Yeah, but only so we can at least see the wrap-up note for this chapter._**

 ** _Kairi: Besides, no point in beating on a corpse. It's not as satisfying [throws a glare at the door where Xehanort could be heard whimpering in pain]_**

 ** _AN: Yeesh. Brutal for a Princess of Heart, but then again, I'm not complaining. Punk has it coming. Anyways, I'll admit, writing this chapter was a bit more difficult than I originally anticipated. For one thing, Hulk's participation did make things a little more different, because I had to think through how he would be acting in each scenario that was presented in the Gamma Dome, along with how he would react to seeing certain faces, like Samson or the various Cube Villains. I'd like to think I did okay, especially since an experienced Hulk would be a little more mindful of how to handle his enemies like he was here, and like we saw a few times in the series Hulk and the Agents of SMASH, but if you feel otherwise, let me know. Please, be fully honest with me on that in your reviews._**

 ** _Also, look at who we got showing up this time around: some of our favorite Agents of SHIELD, namely Phil Coulson, Daisy "Quake" Johnson, and Jemma Simmons, along with Fitz, May, Trip, and even Mack making cameo appearances as gamma creatures. If you need an idea as to what they look like, aside from Daisy, the agents all look as you would normally picture them. Daisy on the other hand is rocking her style from the animated series, Marvel Rising. It's a really good series, in my opinion, even if it isn't all that long of a series, so if you haven't seen it yet, go check it out. Oh, and the plane that we saw here, not The Bus, but Zephyr One, just to be clear on that. And don't worry, we'll be seeing a little more of Daisy later on down the line. I wouldn't have made her a bit closer to Sora's age in this story for no reason, after all, and I think you guys might get an idea on why that is in a few chapters or so._**

 ** _As for Sora being immune to the effects of the Gamma Dome, well that's partly because of how he was immune to the curse of the Aztec Gold in KH2, so basically, he was unaffected because he was from another world, mostly, but I will confirm that his being a Keyblade Wielder does give him some protection against such hazards. Don't think that means that Sora won't be getting his own Space Armor or Arctic Armor for later on, because the kid is still going to need at least the former later on if he wants to survive in space._**

 ** _Now, the meeting with Hawkeye and Black Widow was something that I found a little more difficult to really work out. I know that Sora did not really interact with Romanoff all that much after their brief encounter in the first chapter, but he was still able to tell that she was one of the people who got him some help when he first arrived on Midgard/Marveltopia, and considering this is Sora, we all know he's going to consider everyone his friend until he has a reason not to, so obviously he would be a bit upset at finding someone who had given him even a little help had actually been a bad guy. Just to be clear, Sora will interact with Black Widow again, and well before the events of "Hail HYDRA", but it will be a few chapters before that happens._**

 ** _When it came to the Gamma form for Yuffie, I had a hard time working out ideas, but if you want a basic idea, think of a mix between She-Hulk and X-23, only make the claws a bit more jagged and not made of metal. I know she wasn't really in a gamma form for that long, but I figured you guys would still like an idea of what I imagined her gamma form to be like._**

 ** _Sora: Was it really necessary to have that scene that made fun of my abilities with certain tech. I just said that I can't computer in Kingdom Hearts 3, but that doesn't mean I can't do anything with tech at all._**

 ** _AN: Well, it was going to come up eventually, and you do tend to have a bit of trouble figuring out some tech, so this was the best way for me to point that out at the moment. Besides, would you really have known how to use the Gummiphone in KH3 without Jimminy being there to help you learn?_**

 ** _Sora: Uh...good point. By the way, are you going to change the name of the Kingdom Caller now that you know what the Gummiphone is actually called?_**

 ** _AN: Probably not. For now, just think of the Kingdom Caller as a prototype Gummiphone. I'll have you get an actual Gummiphone later on in this series, so no worries there._**

 ** _Now then, I'm sure some of you are expecting us to get into the events of "Masters of Evil" in the next chapter, but we're not doing that. No, we're not going to do chapters that have most of the team recovering while some small side stuff is going on like we did in Code Avengers. We're going to another world again! And the Avengers aren't the only ones going._**

 ** _Sora: What do you mean by that?_**

 ** _AN: Here's a clue for ya: Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _After all the drama and excitement that had come from the Gamma World Incident, you would think that Sora would be able to kick back and enjoy a nice, peaceful three-day weekend, even if it is mostly filled with study sessions alongside of Peter, Gwen, and Miles. Too bad for him and his friends, the Keyblade has other plans. Another world is in peril, and the Kingdom Key does not seem to care if it has to drag Sora's classmates along for the ride with Hawkeye, Captain America, and Black Panther in tow, but the group soon discovers that there's one more superhero among them on this visit to another world. Not only that, but Sora also finds a couple of familiar faces, and those very friends have landed themselves in quite the important job. In short, what should've been a nice, peaceful afternoon has led to several secrets being unveiled, another mission to save a world from the Heartless, and all while helping a young summoner on her quest to become strong enough to destroy the greatest evil of her world. Pray to the fayth that our heroes can handle all the insanity, in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _See, I told you we'd be seeing Spidey on another world, and it looks like a few secrets about the web-head and Sora are getting busted wide open. Plus, if you can't figure it out from the details here, I'll put it to you straight. Next chapter, we're visiting the world of Final Fantasy X!_**

 ** _Sora: Hey, isn't that where..._**

 ** _AN: Yes, yes it is. I've been really eager to get that adventure into this story, but until then..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	10. Arrival on Spira

**_AN: For the record, this mainly took a long time because of the world that the team's visiting this time, and I'm pretty sure that this is why we never saw any actual worlds from the Final Fantasy games in the Kingdom Hearts, like Spira, Gran Pulse, and the like. At least, not in the sense we've got here._**

 ** _Yuffie: Excuses, excuses. Just admit it. It took you longer than you thought because you spent too much time overthinking on how to properly adapt the story of Final Fantasy X into this story._**

 ** _AN: Well...maybe a little, but here's the good news: the newest chapter in the Kingdom Marvels saga has now been posted!_**

 ** _[audience applause]_**

 ** _Yeah, exciting, and we're going to be seeing all your favorite FF10 heroes to appear in Kingdom Hearts showing up here, and then some from said game series, and not only that, but our old pal Spidey and his gang are coming back for more too! I think that the web-head's second appearance in this story is actually happening sooner than it did even in the Code Avengers Series, and he's a major supporting character in that._**

 ** _Sora: Well, maybe it has to do with the fact that you're clearly making Spidey a much more important character to the story here, in a role beyond just being a love interest or something._**

 ** _AN: DAAAAH! SORA! Where did you come from?!_**

 ** _Sora: Oh yeah, sorry I'm late, but the uh...traffic from Destiny Islands was...a lot worse than usual. I...I think somebody crashed a boat...into the docks, during rush hour._**

 ** _AN: Uh-huh. I think you mean something that definitely involves Kairi in some way, right? Like just so much as spending time just gazing into her eyes like you in a blissful dream, or maybe even making out like your lives depend on it, or something else?_**

 ** _Sora: Well...Maybe...But I wouldn't go that far with the description of the last one._**

 ** _Wasp: I'm just glad that you two have finally calmed down and stopped with constantly beating up Xe-_**

 ** _Riku: NO! [suddenly tackles Wasp before clamping a hand over her mouth; whispering] They may not feel the need to constantly beat him up now, and may be better at holding it in while he's in the room for a_ short...short _time, but saying that particular bad guy's name around Sora and Kairi is now a serious taboo unless you want them to get back to wailing on You-Know-Who nonstop again._**

 ** _Wasp: [glances at Sora for a minute, who's just looking at the two in confusion as if he's trying to figure out what's going on before finally nodding and being let go] Sorry._**

 ** _AN: Don't worry about it._**

 ** _Sora: Uh...What's Janet apologizing for?_**

 ** _AN: Like I said, don't worry about it. It's not important any more. Here's what is important though: the review answers._**

 ** _Yuffie: Oh! How about the one that "Soulofnone911" posted?_**

 ** _AN: Sure. While you do have a point about Yuffie getting a hero name, the problem there is...I have no idea what that name should be. Believe me, I have been trying my hardest to come up with something for her, but every idea I've come up with so far is proving to be...well, none of them are good, to put it nicely._**

 ** _Yuffie: Well, guess that's everyone cue to start lending a suggestion._**

 ** _AN: I get the feeling they all would, even if we didn't ask. But I am asking, so go for it. Anyways, "Spiderfan626", there is a chance I might do a one-shot series for this story like the one I'm doing for the Keyblades Unleashed series, but that may be a little ways away from now. Probably after I've at least finished this story, so I'm afraid that we wont' be seeing a "Kingdom Marvels Extras" from me any time soon. Also, what makes you think that Sora and Peter are the only ones who will be getting "the look"?_**

 ** _Spider-Man: Well, that's not ominous or anything._**

 ** _AN: Rolling on over to "theIrishWriter"..._**

 ** _Roxas: Honestly, I kinda like the KH3 version of that song._**

 ** _Xion: Yeah, same here. It doesn't feel as depressing as the original. And I'm just saying that because of the fight I normally think of whenever I heard that song._**

 ** _Roxas: I am. Sure, there's a sad undertone to it, but with the new way that it was arranged, you get a feeling that something great has come out from a place where sadness and despair were forefront, and a new happiness is born._**

 ** _AN: Wow. That's deep. And to be honest, you took the words right out of my mouth. As for what you said about the reasoning for Sora being gamma-proof, well that's exactly reason why he's gamma-proof, or at least a large part of it; they just don't know it yet. Sora is still learning about his powers right now. In regards to your questions about Night Hunter, he's got plenty of reasons for hanging around on Earth, but I'm afraid most if not all information about our dark KH villain will not be coming until it is revealed in the story. Oh, and no, Sora's not going to go to the world of FF8 at any point. In this story, his dad is from Radiant Garden/Hollow Bastion. So there's that._**

 ** _Rolling on over to "TvFan2244", yeah, I had a feeling some people would be happy to see the team from Agents of SHIELD. And I don't really know how much we'll see of the rest of the team, but I can guarantee that we will be seeing a good deal more of Daisy in later chapters, make no mistake about that. Of course, there's a very big reason as to why that is. And of course, I'm going to keep Trip around for a good long while. That dude's awesome._**

 ** _To "Guest" of 3/12/2019, as I'm sure I've mentioned in previous author's notes of other stories, my main focus at the moment is on anything relating to Kingdom Hearts, so it might be a while before you see another update to the stories you requested. I will try to update some non-Kingdom Hearts stories as soon as I can, but I'm not going to make any promises that I can't keep._**

 ** _Moving along, "Althea Sirius", yeah, you could say that, but considering what happened in those particular scenes, can you really blame me? I mean, I'm pretty sure the number of people who took those scenes well can be counted on one hand. Moving on to the story related questions, One) I had considered having Sora's glider being similar to Ven's, but we've seen several stories where that was the case many, many times before, so I wanted to do something a little more original. Plus, you can't tell me that the image of Sora on a flying motorcycle doesn't look cool, can you? Two) Like that name, and I'll keep it in mind for a later date, just in case. And...wait, I think that's all I can really respond to...well, besides just saying things like "good to know" and the like, which all of that information is, and thanks for the wish of good luck._**

 ** _Next up is, "Bellatrix Lestrange-TheDarkOne", Yeah...given your reputation, I'm not so sure that would be highly recommended as a good idea. (jk. gotta keep the fun going with those kind of comments you know)_**

 ** _By the way, "The Keeper of Worlds", don't worry about that. It was just a little minor mistake, considering that some of the last bits of the previous chapter were copied over from my Code Lyoko &Avengers EMH crossover. I've already fixed that, but thanks for the heads-up._**

 ** _Moving down the list again, "UNKNOWN", while I did like Captain Marvel, because seriously, great movie. You need to see it if you haven't already, at the moment, I'm actually thinking of leaving the Skrulls as they were in the original version of the show. I am brainstorming on a few ways that I can adapt the stuff from the movie into here, but it's slow going. Though that movie did give me a few other ideas that I would like to go forward with in this series as well, so keep an eye out for that._**

 ** _Finally, "GuestWithIdeas", that is all really impressive information, and I like the detail you put into it all. I don't know for sure if we'll be seeing such a training session taking place, but you never know what will happen later on down the line. If I can find the time, I will try to look into all the stuff you mentioned to me, so thanks in advance for all of that._**

 ** _Okay, so let's get things rolling, cause it's time for Part One of the adventure in Spira!_**

 ** _Sora: And you do mean it this time when you say that it's part one, right?_**

 ** _AN: As a matter of fact, I do. There was no way I was going to be able to fit the events of a Final Fantasy world's story into one chapter, you know. To be honest, I'm not sure if I'll even be able to fit it all into two. Avengers, to the chapter!..._**

 ** _I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter X**

In the weeks that followed the Gamma World incident, the Avengers felt that it was probably a good idea to take a little down time, just to make sure that they were in top shape and did not end up with any lingering side effects from their exposure to the gamma rays that the doctors might have missed. Sure, Hulk had let Banner out to help confirm that everyone had a clean bill of health, but you could never be too careful, so life slowed down to a more normal pace for the heroes of Earth. Of course, there was also the fact that they now had to get used to having another person living under the mansion's roof, and frankly, some of the residents of that mansion found living with Hawkeye came with some difficulties. Sure, they understood that he was not really up for joining the team originally, and he was likely still sore about how his last team and teammates had betrayed him, but they did still wish that Barton would let up on his complaining a little.

For the most part, Hawkeye did not really have too much to complain about, beyond what everyone else did, like how Hulk always seemed to eat all of the food without leaving anything for anyone else, or how Sora, Cap, and Yuffie were always in the training room whenever they had a moment to be in there and work on their respective skills, the kids more so than the captain. That did not stop him from finding some faults in other places too, and he had no problem letting his opinions be known to everyone he felt would listen, which more often than not, turned out to be T'Challa and, sometimes, even Yuffie. Apparently, the three were forming something of a bond being the most recent additions to the Avengers; though, Clint did prefer to spend more time around the Wakandan than the ninja girl. It was partly because of that fact that the others were able to quickly learn about why Hawkeye thought the Avengers were a disaster waiting to happen. Sure, he was not entirely wrong about the faults he had pointed out in each of the members, but it did seem like he was judging them a little prematurely. The only one he did not have something negative to say about was Captain America, but then again, it was a little hard to really say too much of anything bad about the super soldier of World War II.

Even with Clint's need to complain and constantly point out faults in how the Avengers operate, or just in the characters of the team's members, the team all managed to carry on like nothing had really changed, and for two particular members, that included the hours spent within the halls and classrooms of Midtown High. Surprisingly, Yuffie's complaints about going to school had died down a bit after Gamma World, but considering what she went through with being mutated and turned into a mindless slave of the Leader, no one could fault her for wanting to step back from such action-packed and dangerous scenes for a few minutes. Of course, one could argue that it was also because she did not have to go back right away, like Sora had, but Yuffie would neither confirm nor deny that, even if she did say as much with a suspicious grin when asked. Sora on the other hand, was a little more relieved to just relax in a regular classroom with his non-superhero friends, even if it did come with the stress that all teens suffer through when getting through classes in high school, plus he felt that it was only fair, since Yuffie had been forced to attend classes at Midtown while he was being held at the mansion in order for the team to better study and understand his power to reach other worlds. That did not stop some of his classmates from asking him about everything that had happened during the Gamma World incident though, and while Sora did not go into full detail, knowing that SHIELD probably wanted to keep a few things quiet, and that some of those things were better kept hidden for the sake of his civilian friends' ease of mind, he did eventually indulge them in an abbreviated account of those events. In point of fact, he had just been in the middle of telling Miles and Anya about the whole thing again at lunch, when Peter and Gwen came over to join them.

"Hey you guys," Miles greeted the two seniors with his usual smile. "Ready for the three-day weekend?"

"You have no idea," Gwen replied with a tired smile. "Be glad you guys aren't seniors yet, because sometimes, I'm not even sure how Pete and I manage any of it. Between studying for all these exams, our internships with Doctor Warren at ESU, and everything else that we deal with…" She then let out a tired sigh before admitting, "I'm kinda surprised neither of our GPAs have suffered any from all that we do, especially in Peter's case."

"Well, what can I say? Guess being the Spider-Man photographer for a little over a year does have the advantage of helping you learn how to multitask," Peter sheepishly shrugged. He then put on a much more appraising smile as he added, "Besides, I doubt anything would keep you from making valedictorian, Gwen. You're way too smart for that to happen."

When Gwen shyly grinned at Peter, though with a slight blush, Sora could not help but smile at the sight. It was hard to believe that a month ago or so, this was the same guy who was trying to shut himself off from having friends, and now, Peter was regularly spending lunch with him, Miles, Anya, and Gwen, when the blonde decided to join them. Even better, it looked like he and Gwen were becoming good friends again, despite whatever drama had unfolded between them last year. Sure, Peter never really went into full detail on what had happened between the two of them, but Sora figured that it did not matter so long as the two were getting along now. On the other hand, Gwen was now the one that left Sora a little mystified, because there were some days when she did not show up on time, and when she did, she tended to look a little…frazzled for lack of a better word. Not to mention, there were times when she looked really nervous for some weird reason, constantly glancing around when she thought no one was looking. At first, Sora figured that Gwen's state was because she was worried about what her boyfriend would think if he saw her hanging out with Peter and the rest of them, but Peter had told him that Harry had actually been forced to drop out of Midtown in order to receive "better education" to ensure he would be ready to take over his dad's company when he turned eighteen, so that could not be it. Of course, that did not rule out the idea that Harry might have something to do with Gwen's odd state, either.

He put that aside though, mentally filing it with the other things that he would be looking into later, when Anya suddenly said, "Oh, by the way guys, I'm sorry to say this, but my family's actually going to be taking me to visit some relatives over in Harlem for the weekend, so not only will I be unable to make it to the study session, but we can't have it at my place."

"Man, that sucks," Miles groaned. The five of them had been planning to use the extended weekend in order to better help one another in studying up on any subjects that they needed help with, more so in the cases of Sora and his fellow underclassmen, while Peter and Gwen just bounced their own notes back and forth to be ready for any future tests or exams that they may have had in their classes. Unfortunately, Doctor Warren had said he would be taking a business trip out of town for a while, so the lab was going to be closed off to everyone, which meant that they had to find a new place. Anya had happily volunteered her place earlier that week, but this news definitely killed that idea.

"Well, where else can we meet, because I'd rather not have this in a stuffy library or at the Silver Spoon," Peter questioned, hoping that the others had an idea.

"Why can't we just go to your house, Pete? I mean, it's been a while since I've last been over, and maybe even longer since I last saw your aunt. Plus, I'm sure she'd love to meet all the rest of these guys," Gwen offered up.

"Sorry, no go. Aunt May's actually going on a trip with Anna Watson this weekend, and she made it pretty clear that I was not allowed to have anyone over for anything," Peter revealed with a sigh, though Sora could have sworn that the older boy had tensed up a little at first when Gwen had first suggested the idea. He was about to ask about this when Peter gave his own idea. "Why not at your house, Gwen?"

"NO," Gwen immediately jumped back in fright, startling the others with her sudden outburst. Realizing this, she quickly tried to recompose herself, but ended up just stuttering when she did. "I-I mean, no, th-that's…that's probably not a g-good idea. 'Cause…Because, my dad is, uh…has been a little edgy since…you know, the Breakout, with the supervillains, and…yeah…"

Since Gwen's father was the NYPD police captain, the others could understand why he would be that way, but it still seemed like a feeble excuse with the way Gwen said it. They were about to call her out on that, when Anya noticed how the blonde was rubbing her left arm in an odd way, and had to ask, "Is there something wrong with your arm, Gwen?"

"What," Gwen asked before turning to see what she was doing. Apparently, she had not even realized it until Anya said something. "Oh, no, it's nothing…just, slept on it wrong last night."

"Then you won't mind letting me have a look," Anya questioned, and before the blonde could pull away from her grasp, Anya had already slipped up Gwen's sleeve to reveal a rather nasty looking bruise that had previously been hidden. "Gwen, what happened?"

"Nothing," Gwen insisted as she jerked her arm back and fixed her sleeve. "It was just…just an accident."

One look between each other was all that the three boys at the table needed to know that she was trying to hide something from them, but none of them were too willing to pry just yet. Anya looked like she was going to, but Miles quickly stopped her by silently grasping her shoulder and shaking his head. Seeing this, Anya let it go with a huff and returned to her seat, while Sora stood up and made his way over to Gwen. "Would you mind if I tried to do something to make it better," the Keyblade hero offered.

"Can you," Gwen questioned.

"I can at least try," Sora shrugged, summoning out his Keyblade as he did. After a minute or two, Gwen hesitantly nodded and offered her arm to Sora, at which point, Sora pointed his Keyblade at the bruise, took a deep, calming, breath, and whispered, "Heal."

What happened next had surprised everyone at the lunch table, as the Keyblade's tip seemed to glow with a faint, green light, while what looked like an image of falling flower petals dropped over both Gwen and Sora, and a minute later, Gwen's bruise had completely disappeared like it had never been there. The blonde flexed her arm for a minute, just to see if there was any lingering any pain, and let out a quiet gasp before saying, "Good as new. Thanks, Sora."

"Hey, no big deal. I'm just glad it worked," Sora smiled in return after he dismissed Kingdom Key and sat down again.

"I'd say it's a pretty big deal. I didn't know you had healing powers, Sora," Miles stated with an excited gleam in his eyes.

"Well, neither did I until just recently," Sora admitted, surprising the others a bit. Knowing that they were now silently asking for him to elaborate, Sora sighed and said, "You see, the other day, I was running a program in the training room with Yuffie, Black Panther, and Hawkeye when Clint landed on his foot wrong and twisted his ankle a little. We immediately stopped the program to make sure he was all right, but then, the next thing I know, I felt…well, I guess you could say it was some kind of instinct coming over me, and I was suddenly raising my Keyblade up, casting a new spell, and then, Clint's leg had been completely fixed."

While it was an impressive story to the others, what Sora did not mention was that the instinct that came over him had actually been another vision of Ventus, Aqua, and Terra, this time showing him various moments of the three casting that healing spell in order to patch up any battle injuries that they had. Most of the flashes had shown Aqua as the one to cast the spell, but Ven and Terra did seem to at least know the spell well enough to know how to use it themselves, so Sora took that to mean that it must have been a basic spell that every Keyblade wielder needed to know, but that was only a minor detail in Sora's mind. From where he was standing, it seemed to Sora that these visions of the three senior Keybearers were becoming more and more frequent every day, and he still had no clue as to why he was getting them. Yes, he had told Thor about that first one he had, but he had still not shared any information with anyone about the other visions he had been getting since then. Sure, that was mainly because a good number of them made it seem like he was watching things through Ventus's eyes, almost like he was the blonde wielder himself, but he was also a little worried about what the others would think even without that detail. Would they start thinking he was crazy, or that he had lied about not knowing the three after they asked him that first time when he had not, or would someone try to suggest that he try to force the visions to tell him what had happened to the three? Sora just was not sure, and he was a little scared to find out, so he continued to keep quiet for now.

He intended to continue doing just that now, because Sora decided it was time to get back to the matter at hand, both to get everyone's attention off of his newest magic power and whatever was going on with Gwen, and said, "Okay, so Peter and Gwen's places aren't an option, and no one wants to go to the library or anywhere public, right? What does that leave us?"

Gwen sent Sora a discreet smile of thanks, knowing that he was moving them away from any topics that she was uncomfortable sharing about at the moment, and Sora only replied with a silent nod that he was sure no one noticed over hearing Miles's input. "Well, we can forget about my place. My folks are always insisting that it's not even big enough for me to have so much as one friend over to hang out, let alone three. I mean, they're not entirely wrong, considering we're all constantly dancing around each other in the morning before we all head out for the day, but still…"

"Oh! That reminds me," Gwen suddenly said. "My dad was wondering if you could ask your dad to tell him about where he got that coffee from that one time they were on a patrol together."

"Sure thing," Miles nodded. This was one of the reasons why he liked hanging around Gwen aside from the fact that they were both nerds. The two of them were also both the kids of a cop, and he would always insist to Sora that they had a kind of comradery that no one else could get if they were not also a Cop-Kid. Sora just thought it was silly, but that may have had something to do with the fist-bump that the two shared when Gwen had jokingly agreed with him on that.

It was at that point that Anya finally thought of something that the others seemed to be ignoring. "Hey, how come you don't all just meet up at Sora's place," the Latin girl asked.

Everyone fell silent at that point, each of them wondering why Anya had asked that. She did have a point in saying that Sora's place was the only one they had not considered, but to some of them, the reasoning for that was pretty obvious. "Because I live at Avengers Mansion, remember," Sora asked.

"So," Anya asked, not seeing the problem.

"As in I sleep just down the hall from the Hulk," Sora added on. When he saw that did not give her any reason to let up on her disbelieving look, he also stated, "And besides that, it's also the headquarters of the world's biggest and most powerful team of superheroes, not just a fancy mansion where we have parties all day and night."

"Then it's a good thing that we're not asking you to throw a party. We just need some place to meet up so that we can have our study group," Miles pointed out, clearly siding with Anya on the matter now.

"They've got a point, Sora. You do seem like the only option we have at this point," Peter informed the kid.

"I just…I don't know," Sora muttered. "I'm not sure if Tony and the others would really be okay with this."

"With what," Yuffie asked as she popped in from out of nowhere, startling the others when she did. "Hah! That never gets old," the ninja chuckled at seeing everyone's reactions to her surprise appearance.

"You know, you could just walk up and say hello like any other person," Anya told her the junior with a hint of a growl. She really was not a fan of Yuffie's antics.

"Why? That's no fun," Yuffie scoffed like it was the silliest thing she had ever heard. "Anyways, what're you guys talking about?"

"We're trying to settle on a location for our study group this weekend, and Sora was just saying that he wasn't sure if you and the other Avengers would have a problem or not with us being at the mansion," Gwen stated.

"Why would you want to have it there," Yuffie asked in total bewilderment. "I mean sure, it's a mansion and you'd have the chance to meet the other members in person, but living with them isn't as glamorous as you think, and there is a chance that the place could be attacked while you're there."

"So? Even if the place is attacked, you guys will be there, along with all the rest of the Avengers to keep us safe," Miles pointed out.

"Well…not all of the Avengers. Hank's still in Wakanda doing some research with Princess Shuri, and I think Wasp said something about getting ready for a fashion show she's doing this weekend," Sora revealed. "I'm not really sure what Tony, Hulk, and Thor are doing though."

"I think Blondie said he was going on a date with that Jane Foster woman he's always hanging out with," Yuffie revealed.

"Either way, it's not like the whole building will be blown into space or something," Gwen interrupted. "Besides, we don't really have any other options since we don't want to go anywhere public."

Yuffie hummed in consideration at that, before smiling and said, "In that case, I don't see why you guys can't come."

"What? Yuffie," Sora snapped, not entirely able to believe she just said that without even checking with the others if it was okay or not. "Don't you think we should at least tell Tony or Steve about this first?"

"Sure," Yuffie nodded. "But you know they're likely going to say yes anyways, so why bother with the hassle?"

Sora was about to point out any number of the reasons why they needed to bother with the "hassle," as she put it, but before he could the rest of his friends let out soft cheers and sighs of relief, happy that they were not going to have to cancel their session after all. "Thanks you guys," Miles said. "Now this definitely shows you're real heroes."

"Yeah…Happy to help," Sora weakly chuckled in response, even though on the inside he was feeling more than a little nervous. _'I have a really bad feeling about this.'_

* * *

"I thought this was supposed to be a headquarters for our team, slash home for Cap, me, Hulk, and the three crazy people, not a daycare center," Hawkeye could be heard grumbling early the next morning as he, Steve, and T'Challa all watched as Sora raced around the mansion in an attempt to make sure everything would be okay for when his friends arrived.

"Hey, it's not like I told Yuffie to go ahead and set this up without talking to you guys first," Sora protested. "Besides, we didn't have anywhere better to go for this because everyone else had some kind of hang-up or reason to say no."

"And you don't? Again, superhero headquarters, not a playground."

"Look, it's not like this is going to be a regular thing, or we're planning to have a huge party while inviting everyone from the school. It's just a study group, and frankly, I could use all the help I can get on some of this stuff. Our resident geniuses aren't exactly all that readily available all the time you know, and some of them aren't really the best at explaining some of these subjects to me," Sora tried to reason. He then quickly turned to the resident Wakandan and added, "No offense, T'Challa."

"None taken," T'Challa replied.

"Just try and be nice, and don't freak them out too much, for me please," Sora pleaded. He knew that he did not need to ask that of Steve and T'Challa, but in Clint's case, he felt that it was necessary. He had already convinced Hulk to try and not do or say anything to scare his friends, so getting Clint to at least attempt to be nice to his friends was more tiring than it was challenging.

Clint was silent for a moment before he finally sighed and said, "Fine. I'll try and be a good babysitter."

"Thank you," Sora nodded as he finally set one last thing into place, right when JARVIS announced that Peter, Miles, and Gwen were at the door. "Okay, now all that's left to do is cross our fingers and hope that my Keyblade doesn't suddenly decide to zap me to another world while this is happening, or worse, that it does do that and ends up dragging my friends along for the ride."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," Clint muttered with a roll of his eyes. Sora did not seem to hear him, but then again, it was not like he was unaware of Hawkeye's greatest hang-up about the wielder of the Keyblade. Everyone knew.

"You still don't believe him about being from another world," Steve questioned, though it was really more of a statement.

"Hey, Thor I can believe, but the kid? Not to mention all of that other crap about how Disney characters actually exist on another planet? No way," Hawkeye insisted. "He not only looks it, but he acts way too human to be from another world, even without his ridiculous choice of footwear, weird hairstyle, and freaky powers and weapon. Despite what _Star Trek_ and other pieces of science fiction would lead you to believe, there's no way there are aliens out there that could look that much like us. Plus, Mickey Mouse giving us that warning about the Heartless? Come on."

"You do know that Nick Fury himself was the one who confirmed that," T'Challa asked.

"Yeah, and I also know that I wouldn't be the first to think that he's getting more than a little crazy after sitting up in the big job as director of SHIELD after all these years," Clint countered.

It had been like this ever since Sora and Yuffie had revealed their other worldly origins to Hawkeye, along with Sora's mission as a wielder of the Keyblade. Now when it came to anything relating to the Heartless, Hawkeye had no problems with believing it, having seen the creatures firsthand at the Vault during the Breakout, but the idea that there was a chance that places and characters from a major media franchise actually existed, or even that other worlds like the ones Sora and Yuffie described to them did, were all things that he refused to actually buy at face-value. This is the one thing that made living with Hawkeye hard for Sora, because no matter what he said, or how many times he insisted that it was true, Hawkeye just refused to believe it. Sure, he believed that Sora was an island boy, but that was it. In Clint's mind, there was just no possible way an entire world could be made up of a small set of islands. It was pretty obvious that it was going to take a lot to convince him otherwise, and for Sora's sake, the others hoped that the needed proof would come soon, because the kid could barely take so much of that skepticism on the matter from the archer as it was.

That was all an aside for now, as Sora had just come back into the room, with Peter, Miles, and Gwen in tow, though the three Avengers were a little curious as to why the blonde was wearing a scarf right now. Apparently, Miles, Peter, and Sora were just as confused, considering the suspicious looks they were throwing towards that particular piece of Gwen's attire, but the other odd thing was that Miles was carrying a small box in his hands as well. Before anyone could question either kid, Hulk came stomping into the room, gaining everyone's attention when he did. All was silent for a minute, until Hulk sniffed the air, and marched over to Miles, who could not help but shrink a little under the intimidating gamma giant before him.

"What's in the box," Hulk questioned the kid.

At this point, Miles's worried features melted into sheepish ones as he admitted, "Well…it's kind of embarrassing, really." He then opened the lid to reveal the contents, which made Hulk's face light up a little when he got a look. "When I told my folks I'd be coming over here to study, my mom kinda, sort of…made cookies for me to give you guys. She said that it was a little something to say thanks for saving the city, and you know, all that other stuff. Silly, right?"

Hulk had stopped listening after he heard Miles say that the cookies were for the team, and instead just dug right in, making Miles glad that his mom made so many. He had to question if it would be enough though when Hulk suddenly stopped and said, "Keep 'em coming."

Miles just nodded in reply, but the next cookie Hulk grabbed was soon snagged by one of Hawkeye's grapple arrows, and pulled over to the archer in question. "Ah, ah, Jade Jaws. How about letting the rest of us at least get one before you devour all of them," the archer quipped.

Hulk just growled in response, not liking the fact that someone had swiped his food, but he knew that the archer had a point. He was not going to give Clint the satisfaction of knowing that though, and just crossed his arms as he waited for Miles to give one to Cap and T'Challa as well. He tried to offer one to Sora, but the kid insisted that he was good for the moment. Still, Miles did brighten up a little when Sora told him that he had just earned himself a spot as one of Hulk's favorite people just from doing this, and he had no problem letting Hulk take the rest of the box from him afterwards. The big guy did promise to try and save one for the rest of the team whenever they got in, but some of them had to wonder if he would be able or willing to keep that promise.

While the Avengers were enjoying their snacks, Peter noticed a distinct lack of energetic ninjas, and had to ask, "So where's Yuffie? Or Mister Stark, if you don't mind my asking? I know that she and Sora told us that Ant-Man, Wasp, and Thor were all busy today, but what about the rest of your teammates?"

"Tony's in the middle of a business meeting. Apparently, Miss Potts finally managed to find a moment where she could get him into the office for more than a few minutes to do some actual work," Steve revealed. "And as for Yuffie, she actually got roped into helping Janet with her fashion show."

"How'd that happen," Gwen asked, truly intrigued as Yuffie did not seem the type to be into things like fashion.

"Let's just say that one of Yuffie's pranks went wrong, and Janet really knows how to hold a grudge," Sora replied, not wanting to go into further details on the off-chance that he ended up laughing at the memory and Janet somehow found out. The others were having a hard time suppressing their own laughter as well, but the task was soon much easier to pull off when Sora's gauntlet started beeping really rapidly and loudly. A minute later, the Kingdom Key flashed into the boy's hand, and the resident heroes all knew what that likely meant. "Oh no, not now," Sora groaned, even as the Keyblade's tip began to glow.

"What? What's wrong," Peter asked.

"We don't have time to explain," Steve stated, suddenly glad that he had been polishing his shield at the time so he had it with him. "Hawkeye, get the kids out of here."

"Why? Because Spiky's wacky sword is going a little crazy," Clint asked. Clearly, his skepticism was now leading him to make poor decisions, or it just did not help him register the distressed state of his teammates.

"Just go, Barton," Steve almost shouted, but the sudden increase in the intensity of the light coming off the Keyblade made one thing clear even before Sora opened his mouth.

"It's too late," Sora cried out. "Brace yourselves! We're going for a ride!"

That was everyone's cue to start screaming as the light finally blinded them all, and in a flash, the four Avengers and their three visiting guests all vanished from the room. Hulk then came rushing into the room, having heard the screaming, but when he arrived and saw no one there, he only paused for a moment until he realized what must have happened. Reaching that conclusion, Hulk could only think of one thing to say right at that moment. "Uh-oh."

* * *

Despite going through this twice now, Sora still was not too fond of the fact that he apparently needed to worry about being blinded whenever the Keyblade teleported him to another world. When he opened his eyes again, he barely even paid the slightest bit of attention to the mountain trail that he had landed upon, or the sounds of the softly crashing waves against a nearby beach, because his heart had quickly sank when he saw who had been dragged along with him. Yes, he had three of his fellow Avengers here, and that was a good thing, but when he saw Peter, Gwen, and Miles had been brought along too, Sora could not help but mentally curse the Kingdom Key for not trying to be a little patient before it zapped them away. More than that, he knew that the three were likely going to be all out of sorts, and there were now a few questions that he had no choice but to answer truthfully.

"What…what just happened," Gwen stuttered as she rubbed the spots out of her eyes.

"Better question…Where are we," Miles asked.

Clint glanced at their surroundings for only a minute before looking to the resident Keybearer and saying, "Okay, Sora, I get that your powers aren't the easiest thing to control at times, but this is a little ridiculous, so how about you just teleport us back to the mansion, now, okay?"

"Uh…I can't," Sora stated.

"What? Not enough juice or something? Fine, I'll just call Stark," Clint shrugged while pulling out his ID card. Either he was not really getting what was happening, or he was just in denial of the obvious truth, but the rest of Hawkeye's teammates knew that this was going to be just the proof that Hawkeye needed when it came to that one aspect of Sora's story that he had refused to believe up until now. It did not keep him from being persistent in trying to call the other Avengers though, as he tried again and again to call up the mansion, only to get the same results. "What's with this thing? Is it already busted? I thought Stark said that these things were tied into his satellite network, and can do the same for a number of others as well if needed."

"It's not going to work, Clint, because we're not anywhere near a place that is within range of those networks," Sora informed him.

"And why not," Peter asked as he tried his phone, only to see that he had no signal on that either. Looking to Gwen and Miles, Peter saw that they were doing the same as him, and had just as much success, but they all stopped short of trying to get a signal when they heard Sora's answer.

"Because it doesn't extend to other worlds. I should know since that was one of the first things that Yuffie and I tried the first time my Keyblade zapped me to another world," Sora revealed with a sigh. "Just be glad that we'll still be able to use the ID cards to stay in touch with each other. It may be a shorter range of communication, but it's still better than nothing."

Clint still was not ready to buy it, because he had immediately scoffed, "Yeah right. For the last time, I'm not buying that 'other worlds' crap you keep going on about, so get serious already will you?" When he turned to Cap and T'Challa for backup in his words, he saw that they were both shooting him even expressions that made it clear that they knew Sora was not joking, and that was when it finally sank in. "Oh…You are serious. You mean to tell me that…that this whole thing about other worlds, Keyholes, and all that other crap really is…"

"YES," all three of the other Avengers shouted. Sure, it may have been a little out of character for Steve and T'Challa, but even they were getting a little fed up with Hawkeye's skepticism on that particular matter.

"Whoa, whoa! Hold on a minute! Rewind," Miles interrupted before the Avengers could keep going. "What're you guys talking about? Other worlds? Keyhole? What's…I don't really…"

"Someone explain. Now," Gwen demanded as she gave each of the Avengers a hard, even stare with one eyebrow raised as if demanding that anyone say no to her.

When he saw that, Peter flinched back a little, raising Miles's curiosity when he did. "What?"

"She's giving them the look. You do _not_ want Gwen to give you the look in general, and now, she's giving it to the _Avengers_ ," Peter whispered to his younger friend. In his head though, Peter could not help but think, _'That's actually…kinda hot. Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy there, Parker. Don't forget about what's going on around you, or why you and Gwen can't happen right now, if ever. Still…'_

Whether they heard Peter or not, the four Avengers still seemed to flinch back a little from the way that Gwen was looking at them, but it did not stop Sora from stepping forward. They were his friends, and they were only in this because of him and his inability to stop the Keyblade from teleporting them to another world, so he felt that he had to be the one to explain what had just happened, along with everything else. "All right, you guys might want to sit down for this, because it's a really long story, and it may be a little hard to process," Sora cautioned.

"Hey, I take Spider-Man's pictures for a living. I think I can handle it," Peter pointed out. He still found a rock to sit down on though, just to be on the safe side, with Gwen and Miles following his lead soon after.

Sora just nodded in reply before he took a deep breath and told them the whole, honest story. Everything from how he had first gotten the Keyblade, to the true reason why he was in New York and had become part of the Avengers, about the Heartless, his previous journeys to other worlds, and all of the other details that he had left out when he had told them his back story at a point that seemed like a very long time ago, now. When he was finally finished, all three Midtown High students had to admit that he was right when he had told them to sit down, because they were all feeling a little dizzy after hearing about all this new information. In fact, they were so stunned, that none of them had spoken a word after Sora had finally finished, and that was probably a little more worrying for him than anything else.

Eventually, Miles was the one who broke the silence, but he could not say anymore than, "Wow…You weren't kidding. That was a long, unbelievable story."

"Yeah. I take back what I said before. I'm definitely glad that I sat down for that," Peter breathed out, apparently not realizing that he had forgotten to breathe for a moment.

"So you're…what, you're like an alien or something," Gwen finally asked Sora.

"No, I'm human. I'm just…not from Earth, or Midgard…Marvel-topia…well, whatever name you want to use," Sora reassured her. "Who was the genius that decided a world should have more than one name like that, anyway?"

"Still, I can't imagine what it must be like. Suddenly having your whole life turned upside down like that and then getting such a huge responsibility dropped on you…How are you not crazy," Miles asked.

Hearing that comment made Peter glance off to the side in deep thought for a minute, but as to what he was thinking, none of the others could say. At least for the most part, but Sora got the feeling that somehow, Peter did have something of an idea about what that was like. He was not going to pry though, because whatever the reason, it was not any of Sora's business. Peter would tell them when he was ready, or if it became necessary to tell them. Shaking that off, Sora just shrugged and said, "I'm actually not so sure I haven't, considering some of the stuff I've been doing recently."

His little joke did seem to do the trick in lightening the mood a little, given the smiles that his school friends gave him, but it did not distract anyone from the big problem that they were facing right now. "Hey, so, how do we get back," Hawkeye asked. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty sure that a few parents won't really be too fond of their kids being on another world full of who-knows what kind of danger."

"Like I said, the only way we can get back is to find and close the Keyhole of this world, or stop whatever it is that made the Keyblade decide that I had to be here," Sora repeated, having gone over that detail when he had recounted the events that had taken place while he and Yuffie were on Atlantis.

"Why not just call your two friends that are looking for their king and ask if they can get us home," Gwen asked.

"We have no idea where they are right now, or if the Keyblade won't just zap me back here after they pick us up, and this time with them along for the ride and leaving them without any way to leave and keep looking for King Mickey," Sora pointed out.

"Still not sure if I can really believe that Mickey Mouse is actually real," Clint muttered under his breath, and no one could blame him for saying that. After all, that was one of the details of Sora's story that was going to need the most solid, hard proof in order for anyone to believe it.

"But Gwen does have a point. You should at least try to call them and see if they're nearby and able to help out any," Peter countered.

"He's right. It would be best to take all of our options into consideration before we make any hasty moves," Steve agreed.

Sora nodded in reply and reached to pull out the Kingdom Caller from his pocket when they all heard someone screaming in fear. Acting on instinct, the four Avengers immediately turned to where the mystery person's cries had come from and raced off to see what the problem was. Not wanting to get left behind on a strange world they knew nothing about, Gwen, Miles, and Peter all chased after the heroes as well, but the last of the three slowed his pace a little to grab something from his bag and then slap it onto his wrist, out of everyone else's sight with a hesitant, yet resigned look on his face. Clearly, Peter was hoping he would not end up needing to use the devices, but he had a feeling that the old Parker Luck was not going to grant that wish.

After a few more minutes of running, the group quickly spotted a man in long ornate robes with long, light blue hair that ran down his back and was styled in a way that made it look similar to two long horns, as well as two other men carrying swords, which were being brandished towards none other than the familiar, shadowy, beady eyed creatures that were the Heartless. Seeing this, Sora immediately activated both his gauntlets and helmet, summoned the Keyblade, and charged forward, slashing at the closest Shadow the minute he was in range. The other Avengers had soon followed after their young teammate after making sure that the civilian kids had taken cover somewhere safe, or at least as close to safe as they could find in the area, and they immediately went to work in destroying Heartless left and right. Whenever one tried to jump his teammates or the people the dark creatures were originally attacking, Captain America was quick to intervene with his shield ready to both block and counterattack, and to make sure that they kept a good distance, Hawkeye easily let loose a barrage of quickly drawn arrows, be they regular or trick variety. T'Challa and Sora were the ones who got up close and personal in the fight more than anyone else, but mostly because they were the only ones among the heroes who did not possess an easy means of providing extra cover or protection. Sure, T'Challa could probably blast a few with his vibranium daggers, but he was not one to go right to using such tactics when better opportunities were available to him.

Meanwhile, the three people that the Avengers had just rushed in to rescue could only look on at the heroes in surprised awe, indicating that they had never seen anyone like them before or they were just surprised by the team's sudden appearance. Not that they really had the time to question them on which of the two it was, because the Heartless were not going to let up in their attacks just so they could have a Q-and-A session. Thankfully, with the Avengers' help, the Heartless were quickly destroyed, and they were all able to breathe a little easier, giving the previously endangered citizens a chance to finally speak up to the heroes from another world. Even if all the talking was left to just one of them.

"You have my thanks, strangers," the blue haired man nodded, his voice giving the Avengers uncomfortable chills for some reason, and from the way he was looking at some of them, they could not help but think that he was trying to hide some form of annoyance beneath that far-too-pleasant smile of his. "I have no idea where those fiends could have come from, but it is a lucky thing that such skilled warriors such as yourselves happened along when you did. You've done a great service to both Spira and the Guado today."

"Hey, don't worry about it. We're just glad we could help," Sora casually waved him off with his usual smile. "Still, you should probably be a little more careful if you run into anymore Heartless. Those guys are nothing but bad news."

"I will take that advice into consideration, my young friend," the man nodded in reply. His escorts on the other hand seemed a little put-off by what Sora had said. Then again, maybe it was the way that he had spoken that had surprised them.

"You should be showing a little more respect to Maester Seymour, young man," one of the two obvious bodyguards said, and looking at said bodyguard, everyone could tell that he was not human with his oversized hands, and wooden, elvish appearance. "He is a great figure of hope for both humans and guado alike."

"Now, now, that's enough of that," Seymour waved off his guard. "If anything, I find this young man's laid back attitude rather comforting. It's not every day I meet someone who greets me as though I were any other individual after all."

The Avengers all shared a look as Seymour continued to speak with his guards, having clearly picked up on the clues that they had just learned. Whoever this man was, he was clearly someone of great importance, and apparently, everyone should know that, meaning Sora had probably just gotten them into trouble by talking to the man so casually. Even the young Keybearer seemed to recognize this, as he quickly said, "Oh, I'm sorry. My friends and I are all new around here, and we don't really know too much about local customs or leaders."

"Oh? I thought everyone on Spira was aware of our customs and leadership," Seymour hummed in thought. Hawkeye had soon narrowed his eyes a little at the man when he said that. There was something about the way he had said that last statement that made Clint uneasy, and if he were to look over to Peter, he would have seen that the young man was just as tense and fixing a hard look on Seymour as well. The maester did not seem to notice though, as he merely crossed his arms in thought. "Still, I can't help but wonder…if those Heartless, as you called them, were able to come this close to one of the temples of Yevon, could they have also gone into the temple as well?"

Hearing that sent up warning bells for the Avengers at once, and especially for Sora. He remembered that Thor had once told him that the Heartless find their targets through the amount of darkness one holds in their heart, and darkness was in every heart. Not only that, but according to the Asgardian, and the information that Fury had received from Ansem and King Mickey, the Heartless were also drawn to places where there were a lot of people, so if there was a temple nearby that a lot of people visited, then the dwellers of darkness were likely going to go there for their next targets. One look amongst each other and the Avengers all knew that they were thinking the same thing, so they immediately nodded to one another before Captain America looked to Seymour and told them what they planned to do.

"If you don't mind, sir, we'll head over to this temple and investigate on whether or not the Heartless are there," the super soldier stated.

"That would be very kind of you, sir, but I wouldn't want to trouble you," Seymour tried to say, despite the fact that his creepy smile had not dropped in the slightest, almost as if he knew that the heroes were going to do that.

Even so, that did not change the facts, as T'Challa soon stated, "It would be no trouble at all, I assure you. Protecting the innocent is a duty that we would uphold without a second thought, and the Heartless are not something that are easily dealt with if you do not possess the necessary means of doing so."

"Very well then. If you insist," Seymour nodded in defeat before waving his arm towards the fork in the road and the path that led to the right. "You'll find the Djose Temple down that road there."

"Thank you, sir," Sora nodded in reply and with that, the Avengers took off down the indicated path.

"Hey! Wait for us! You do remember that we don't have crazy powers or training like you guys, don't you," Miles called out as he, Gwen, and Peter chased after the Avengers once again, none of them ever noticing how Seymour was grinning devilishly at their backs the whole way.

* * *

The team did not get very far down the path before they had encountered the Heartless again, because just minutes after parting from Seymour, a number of Soldiers, Large Bodies, and Shadows had materialized before them, along with a few smaller ones that had fire, ice, or lightning powers. That did not stop the Avengers though, as they merely pushed their way forward, eliminating the dark creatures as they ran, while doing their best to keep the three civilians safe. Not that it really seemed like they needed to, because for the most part, Peter managed to get away unscathed when most of the attacks came his way. He had brushed it off as just being lucky, but Cap and Hawkeye were not convinced. The way the kid had been moving told them that he had experience in dodging attacks at a moment's notice, and a lot of times, he should not have even seen some of those attacks coming. It was almost like he had eyes in the back of his head, but they did not stop to question him on it. They were still in the middle of fighting dangerous monsters after all.

Eventually, they did come to the temple that Seymour had mentioned, and while they were impressed by the massive structure that seemed to surge with electricity while massive boulders orbited around a central pillar, it was a small distraction from the cries of terror as people ran scared from the attacking Heartless. A quick toss of Cap's shield, followed by an explosive arrow from Hawkeye and a pair of Black Panther's vibranium daggers soon announced the team's arrival, and they all immediately set to work in destroying the Heartless. This time, Gwen, Peter, and Miles did not just sit back and watch, but instead, they did what they could to help people get to safety while doing their best to steer clear of the fights that were happening between the Avengers and their dark opponents. That did help Sora to breathe a little better, knowing that his friends were being careful and able to stay calm enough to help them out, but he was still worried about what the Heartless were doing here all the same. His worries grew a little more when he overheard Gwen talking to someone who had been injured and was unable to get away on his own.

"What sort of fiends are these creatures? Not only are they able to approach a Temple of Yevon, but some of them actually entered the temple itself, and even went so far as to get into the Cloister of Trials," the man had despaired, truly shocked and frightened by this fact for some reason that Sora could not think of.

Gwen was curious as well, but there was a more pressing matter to worry about. "Was anyone in there when the Heartless got in," the blonde asked.

"Yes. A summoner and her guardians had gone inside so that she could pray to the fayth as part of her pilgrimage," the man stated.

Hearing that, Sora immediately took action, and raced towards the temple. "I'll go take care of the Heartless inside," he shouted as he ran. "Think you guys can handle these guys?"

"Yeah, no worries. We've got this covered, kid," Hawkeye boasted with a sly smirk, even as he shot an arrow at a pouncing Soldier without even looking at it.

At another time, Sora probably would have accused the archer of showing off, but instead, he just nodded and turned to go in. Just as he was approaching the entrance though, he heard the man Gwen had been talking to yelling after him. "Wait! You can't go in there! It's forbidden for anyone other than a summoner and their guardians to enter the Cloister of Trials!"

"I don't think that's going to matter if the summoner and her guardians are attacked by the Heartless. If I don't go, they'll most likely end up losing their hearts," Sora shouted back without thinking, and as such, he missed the startled and shocked gasps from the local citizens as he disappeared into the temple.

"That's gonna come back to bite him and us later on, isn't it," Hawkeye asked.

"Stay focused, soldier. We can worry about any consequences that our actions may or may not have later. Right now, our job is to deal with the Heartless out here," Captain America informed Clint as he swung his shield through any Heartless that got too close to him. Unfortunately, since he had been distracted by talking with Hawkeye, the captain never noticed that a small group of Shadows were creeping up behind him, ready to pounce the minute they rose up from the ground. Someone else did though, and when he reacted, the Earthlings were all left very surprised by what they saw him do.

"Cap, watch out," Peter shouted, and before he could even think about what he was doing, he ran straight towards the super soldier, and jumped at least five feet in the air, spinning around as he did. While airborne, Peter immediately aimed for the Heartless with his wrist devices, and snagged them all in a pair of webs. By the time Peter had landed and pulled the Heartless into one another, destroying all of Captain America's would-be attackers when they collided, everyone from Midgard had begun looking at him with eyes that were as wide as dinner plates, making him audibly and loudly groan when he realized what he had just done. "Well, the secret identity was fun while it lasted," Peter muttered to himself, not noticing that a Red Nocturne Heartless had snuck past his notice and threw a fireball at him until it was too late.

"PETER," Gwen and Miles both shouted in horror, while Hawkeye fired off a retaliatory arrow at the Heartless that had just attacked the kid. When Peter stood up again, everyone was both relieved and surprised. Part of the latter was because Peter did not seem to be all that much worse for wear, but the main reason was because of the familiar red, blue, and web-themed suit that was now revealed from beneath the burnt remains of his clothes.

"Well, this is…unexpected," T'Challa commented, even as he slammed his fist into another Soldier. Neither one of his fellow Avengers could think of anything to add to that, as they were both too stunned to speak, and from the looks of things, Peter's friends were not any better.

"No. Way," Miles gasped in awe.

"Peter…You…You're actually," Gwen stuttered, barely able to get a sentence together.

Peter merely glanced down at what was left of his casual attire, before he simply sighed again and ripped his ruined clothes away, after retrieving his gloves and mask from his back pocket. "Look, I know you guys probably have a million different questions, but like Cap said, we've got more important things to worry about right now," Peter stated as he pulled on his gloves, flexing his hands a little to make sure that they were comfortably in place. He then looked to his best friend since childhood and his underclassman friend before saying, "But I'll go ahead and get the big question answered now…" He then pulled on his mask, completing his transformation from civilian to the infamous superhero of New York and adding a dramatic flair to his next statement as he did. "I am the spectacular Spider-Man. Now, who's ready to start round two?"

The Avengers were still surprised by the revelation that Spider-Man was actually a high school teenager, and had been right next to them the whole time without them ever knowing it, but when they heard him mention a round two, they quickly put their focus back on the fight at hand. Gwen and Miles, on the other hand, took a little longer to get over their shock before they got back to work, but as she glanced back at Spidey, Gwen mentally swore to Peter that they would be talking about this the minute, no, the very _second_ that the chance came to them, and judging by the slightly annoyed scowl on her otherwise beautiful face, Miles had a hunch Peter's explanation was going to have to be really good if he wanted to avoid the blonde's wrath.

* * *

Deep within the Cloister of Trials, right outside the chamber of the fayth, the guardians that the man had spoken of were fighting for their lives against the Heartless, and while their efforts were valiant, nothing they did seemed to have much of, if any effect against their dark opponents. To be quite honest, the most any of them had managed was a small bit of damage thanks to the magic spells that one of them had thrown out, but sadly, she was also the only one who was a regular practitioner of magic, and she could not be expected to keep throwing out new spells to destroy the invading Heartless forever, which left the guardians right back at their original problem. Of course, no one was more frustrated than one of their newest members, as they could tell by how he huffed angrily when his blitzball just seemed to pass right through the Shadow he tossed it at.

"Are you kidding me," Wakka growled as he caught his trusty ball before tucking it under his arm again. "This is just like that night on the islands, except without the weird storm."

"No kidding, only this time, we're not going to get blasted off to another place like before," his best friend, Tidus promised before rushing forward and trying to cut down a Soldier with his new, shimmering blue hook-sword. His attack failed to do anything though, and he was soon forced to raise his small shield up in an effort to block the retaliatory slash that the Heartless threw at him. The Soldier was soon blown off when the oldest member of the group of guardians jumped in and blasted the Heartless aside with his sword, and Tidus quickly nodded in thanks, even though the guy just smirked at him as if he was amused.

"Bold words, but it's a shame you can't seem to do anymore in acting on them than the rest of us," the old man said.

"Doesn't mean I'm not gonna try you know," Tidus retorted.

That earned him a brief laugh from the man before he commented, "You really are Jecht's son."

"Urgh, really? You're bringing up my old man now, of all times," Tidus groaned.

"Perhaps you should both focus on the task at hand," the rather strict woman in black that served as their team's black mage scolded both men.

"You heard the lady. Worry about the fiends for now," the blonde girl piped in before she tossed a grenade at a group of Heartless. Not that it really did too much, but she felt like she should get some props for trying at least.

All manner of self-praise was quickly banished from the blonde's mind, when their large, lion-like friend had to step in and bat away another Heartless with his spear, growling lowly at the offending creature before he attempted to destroy it once more. Not that he was having much better luck than the others, but you could not help but admire his determination to try and get a job done. Tidus was about to rush over and assist the animalistic brute when another pair of Shadows jumped at him, and made him pause so that he could raise his shield again. When nothing collided with the shield, Tidus turned to see that the Heartless were gone, and then looked around to see a black blur racing across the room while something seemed to slice through the Heartless as the blur passed them. When the person in question came to a stop at last, everyone in the room was stunned to see a man in a blue helmet with matching gauntlets, and a strange outfit that did not fit anyone they knew on Spira, crouched down with his arm held outwards like he had just sliced through an opponent with his strange-looking weapon.

No one got a good look at his odd sword for long though, as Tidus's rescuer was soon dropping into his own battle stance before he charged the Heartless again, while shouting, "Stay back! I'll handle the Heartless. You guys just make sure that you're all okay before trying to jump into the fight again."

No one argued with him, but Wakka and Tidus both could have sworn that this person's voice was really familiar. Still, they quickly set to work passing out Potions and Ethers to anyone that needed them, and once everyone was rejuvenated to a satisfactory point, the guardians all got back into the fight. Much to their surprise, all their attacks seemed to have become able to affect the Heartless now, and they could only think that the reason for that was the man who had just rushed into the room to aid them. Not that anyone was complaining, mind you, but it did add a few more questions to everyone's minds. It also did not stop some of them from glaring at the mystery man a little, but he did not seem to take any notice, considering how focused he was on taking down the Heartless.

When the last dark creature was destroyed, the man dismissed his weapon in a flash of light and turned to the group of guardians. "Everyone okay?"

"We're fine for the moment, but you shouldn't be here," the black mage stated, almost sounding like she was scolding their rescuer for something.

"Hey, lighten up, Lulu. The guy did just save our skins, so I doubt anyone's going to get into too much trouble, ya," Wakka attempted to reason, but all he got in return was a fierce look that made him flinch back a little. "Sheesh, okay, okay. Have it your way."

"Wait a minute," the mystery man suddenly gasped, making everyone turn to him as he studied two of their number in surprise. "Wakka? Tidus?"

"Uh…have we met," Tidus questioned, with Wakka silently repeating it with his confused expression.

"What do you mean 'have we met?'? Of course we have! Weren't you the one who once said there's no way someone would be unable to recognize…" The man started to say only to stop short when he realized why the two had not instantly figured out his identity. A minute later, the guardians were all watching as his helmet retracted from his head all on its own, letting a familiar mane of brown spikes pop out from beneath it, while the boy let out a cheesy grin that instantly drew gasps of surprise from Tidus and Wakka both. "Sorry about that. Guess I forgot I was still wearing that helmet for a minute there."

"SORA," Tidus and Wakka both cheered before rushing up and exchanging high-fives and bro-hugs with the Keyblade wielder.

"I can't believe it! I was beginning to think we'd never see another person from Destiny Islands again, man," Wakka happily admitted while ruffling the younger boy's spikes, despite Sora's humorous protests.

"No kidding. Where've you been all this time, bud," Tidus asked.

"It's a long story," was all Sora could say at the moment.

"Friend of yours," the swordsman that had mentioned Tidus's father asked.

"You better believe it. We've told you about him, remember? Sora may be a couple years younger than us, but he's still an awesome fighter," Tidus reminded the man.

"Come on. I'm only a year younger than you, and two years younger than Wakka," Sora reminded Tidus.

"Doesn't make the statement any less true, though," Wakka pointed out, to which Sora had to agree. At least until Wakka added, "Sora here's the second best fighter on all of Destiny Islands."

"Hey! Whaddya mean 'second best,'" Sora demanded.

"Riku," both boys replied in tones that stated it should have been obvious.

Sora just crossed his arms in a huff, and the whole exchange likely would have been amusing had it not been for the fact that at least two of Tidus and Wakka's new friends were still glaring at Sora. The Keybearer figured that they were mad at him for breaking the temple rules, and he was about to apologize for doing so while giving his reasons for doing so, when the door to the chamber of the fayth opened, making everyone turn just in time to see a young woman stepping out. From where Sora was standing, this girl was very beautiful, from her fair skin and shoulder-length brunette hair, to her rather exquisite attire that made Sora think she was someone from great nobility. Said attire consisted of a black camisole underneath a white sash that wrapped around her neck and over her chest, tucked into a yellow sash that was tied into a bow at her back and wrapped around her middle, while her arms were left bare save for the white sleeves that reached from the middle of her upper arms down to her wrists. Along with that, she also wore a flowing, purple pleated dress with flower patterns running along it, and a pair of black boots with small, almost unnoticeable heals. To complete her outfit, Sora saw that she also wore a blue-beaded earring on her right ear, though it was mostly hidden by a lock of her hair, with said earring being woven into blue beads with gold rings around a larger bead in the middle, along with a silver pendant hanging around her neck on a thin necklace. He was about to ask who she was when the large, feline-like man suddenly rushed over to catch her before she had fallen over.

"Are you all right," the woman Sora had heard Wakka call Lulu asked as she rushed to the girl's side.

"I'm fine," the girl replied in a soft voice. "I just…I just need a minute."

"Take your time, Lady Yuna. There's no rush," the swordsman stated.

Sora on the other hand, had a different idea, and quickly summoned out his Keyblade again as he offered, "Maybe I can do something to help out with that."

Lulu turned back to him, her angry look returning soon after, and looked ready to tell Sora off until she got a look at his weapon and gasped in shock. Hearing her gasp made the rest of the guardians take another look at Sora, and aside from Tidus and Wakka, they all soon let out their own shocked reactions of their own at the sight of his blade. "It…can't be…" Lulu whispered.

"You've gotta be kidding me," the blonde girl said.

"And so another one comes to Spira," the swordsman commented to himself. "This story gets more and more interesting by the day."

"Keyblade," the feline-like man quietly growled in a deep voice.

"Whoa. You got Kimahri to say at least one word after just being around for a few seconds," Wakka told Sora, apparently think that was something worthy of great praise.

"Well what do you expect? This is Sora, remember? He can make friends with just about anyone he meets," Tidus reminded his best friend.

Yuna seemed to ignore the bantering boys before she smiled and nodded to Sora, saying, "I would be very grateful if you would lend some of your services, Keyblade master."

Sora was a little surprised that all of these people knew about the Keyblade, but he quickly shook it off and focused on what he had originally planned to do. So, after holding the Keyblade close to Yuna, he took a deep breath, and cast the same spell he used just yesterday to heal Gwen's bruise, and like that, all of Yuna's exhaustion seemed to fade away into nothing once the green light of Sora's newest spell had washed over her. With her strength now returned, Yuna easily stood up on her own, and performed a slightly elaborate bow while saying, "Thank you very much, Keyblade master…um…"

"Sora," the Keybearer supplied for her.

"Oh," Yuna gasped while her eyes lit up a little in excitement. "Are you the same Sora that Tidus told me about when he talked about his friends on the Destiny Islands?"

"I…guess so," Sora shrugged. He then took notice of Yuna's exact words, and had to ask, "What about Wakka? Didn't he ever say anything about me?"

"Well, uh, yes, he did, but I just…I mean…" Yuna stuttered in response, barely able to finish a complete sentence as her face started turning a little red, much to her guardians' amusement.

"As entertaining as this is, perhaps we should go now. I don't think we would want Sora getting into trouble before his nature as a Keyblade wielder is revealed to the people outside the temple," the swordsman stated.

"But what about those weird fiends? What if there are more of them outside," the blonde girl asked.

"There aren't," Sora reassured them while activating his helmet again so he could access its scanners. "I took care of all the Heartless back there on my way in, and from what I can tell of these readouts, my friends have managed to take care of the Heartless that were still outside."

"Heartless," Yuna questioned, reminding everyone that she had missed all the action from before.

"We'll explain later," Lulu promised. She then gave Sora a pointed look as she finished, "All of us will."

Sora just nodded in reply, and then followed the group out of the chamber, towards the exit. He knew that Lulu was basically saying that he would be telling them his story the first chance they got when she threw him that look, and he was perfectly fine with doing so if it meant they would be ready for the dangers that came from dealing with the Heartless. Sure, he had just done so with Peter, Miles, and Gwen, but he did not mind repeating the story. He just had to hope he did not have to do so again for a little while longer, because going over all of those details was a little tiring.

* * *

Sora was relieved to see that the rest of his friends were okay and had managed to finish the remaining Heartless without any trouble, but he was also a little worried when he also found out that Tidus and Wakka's new friends were not wrong about him likely getting into trouble for his reckless stunt of running into the Cloister of Trials like he had. "You heathen," someone from the crowd angrily shouted, while the rest of them began jeering at him.

"Get away from the summoner," a woman demanded.

"You're a bad man," what sounded like a young child had added on, and that comment seemed to rile up the Avengers and Sora's other friends from Marvel-topia. In fact, it almost looked to Sora like Hawkeye was about ready to put an arrow in some of these people's eyes for their words, while Gwen and Miles looked ready to hold some of them still for the archer, when the swordsman from Tidus and Wakka's new circle of friends spoke up, his voice even, yet loud and booming all the while as he practically scolded them.

"You should all watch your mouths. This so-called 'heathen' is in fact a chosen wielder of the Keyblade, much like those who aided myself, Sir Jecht, and Lord Braska ten years ago," the swordsman declared, and like that, the shouting and jeers turned to stunned gasps and excited whispers.

When Sora did nothing to react, Lulu gave him a small nudge from behind and whispered, "Show them the Keyblade. It'll serve as all the proof anyone needs."

Sora decided to take the black mage's word for it, and held his hand out before him so that when Kingdom Key materialized, everyone was able to see it clear as day. The minute the legendary blade had appeared in his hand, more shocked gasps followed, but this time, the excited whispers had grown louder to the point where several people were practically cheering for the boy before them, and some of them even performed the same bow to him that Yuna had earlier.

"It's true! He does possess the Keyblade," declared a man that looked a lot like a priest to Sora and his friends.

"Praise be to Yevon! The chosen Keybearer of legend," several other people muttered amongst themselves.

Sora could not help but grin a little at this new development, but it was mostly to mask his discomfort at seeing so many people looking at him in the way these people were. If he did not know better, he would think that they were considering him to be some kind of holy savior or something, and the next person's question definitely did not help in abolishing that idea. "Do you intend to assist Lady Yuna in her pilgrimage like those three wielders from ten years ago did her father?"

"Um…I don't…" Sora started to say, until Wakka suddenly came up from behind him and grabbed him in a headlock. "AH! Hey! Wakka!"

"Of course he's gonna help out," Wakka replied on Sora's behalf. "This guy here would help anyone with just about anything at the drop of a hat if he could. I should know, since me and him were good buds even before he got that fancy sword of his."

"It's true and the same goes for me as well," Tidus informed everyone, and their news seemed to bring a great deal of joy to everyone. Although, Yuna appeared to be a little concerned for Sora, since she had not even thought of asking him about that yet, while Lulu and the swordsman just shot the two boys irritated looks for speaking on their friend's behalf like that. It was hard to really say what Kimahri was thinking, but the blonde girl was definitely entertained by the scene before her, if her giggling was any clue. However, it was the other Avengers' reactions that Sora was most concerned with.

"Excuse me," Hawkeye finally called out as he pushed through the crowd, with Cap and Panther right behind him, and the other three following soon after. "Yeah, not to interrupt the little party here, but we've kinda got some prior responsibilities to deal with. Namely finding the Keyhole and getting home."

"Hey, come on, Clint. These two guys are my friends from back home. Besides, they've been here a while, so maybe they might have a clue on where the Keyhole is, or maybe their new friends do," Sora reasoned after he got loose from Wakka's strong grasp. Say what you would about Wakka, but there was no denying that the guy was definitely packing a good deal of muscle thanks to his many years of playing Blitzball.

The guardians all looked at the archer and the rest of the rather colorful group that had just stepped forward before Lulu asked, "Do you know these people, Master Sora?"

Sora sighed in response, before saying, "First off, it's just Sora. You don't have to call me 'Master.' And second, yes, they're some new friends I made very recently." He then proceeded to introduce the Avengers to his old friends, saying, "Guys, this is Tidus and Wakka. They're friends of mine from Destiny Islands. Tidus, Wakka, meet Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, T'Challa the Black Panther, Captain Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America, Gwen Stacy, Miles Morales, and…" Sora was about to say Peter's name when he noticed that in his place was actually the same crime fighter that he had met on his first day at Midtown. "Spider-Man! What're you doing here? And…how are you here? Wait, where's Peter?"

"Uh…well, you see, the thing about that is…" Spidey stuttered, apparently trying to come up with some kind of lame excuse, and that seemed to draw eye-rolls from the other Avengers, while Miles just chuckled and Gwen irritably huffed.

"Peter, just tell him. It's not like you can hide it now, despite the fact you already did for over a year," Gwen ordered, making Spider-Man sigh before he removed his mask to reveal his face to a very stunned Sora.

"What?! Peter, _you're_ Spider-Man," Sora exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah…Uh…Surprise," Peter sheepishly shrugged.

"I'm guessing this something you didn't already know," Tidus asked.

"Not until now," Sora admitted.

"Yeah, so much for being innocent while the web-head was still at large," Hawkeye remarked, quoting a Daily Bugle headline from several months back.

Sora did not really know what the archer was talking about, but he did not get a chance to ask when Tidus interrupted. "Well, I guess that means we should take our turn to make some introductions."

"Agreed, but maybe we should continue this conversation somewhere a little less public," Captain America suggested.

"That's fine. We can talk on the road, since we need to get moving right away," the swordsman agreed.

"Really? You guys are leaving now," Sora questioned.

"It's essential if Lady Yuna wishes to complete her pilgrimage and defeat Sin," the swordsman explained, but that only served to confuse the Midgardians even more.

"We'll explain that on the way too," Wakka promised.

Everyone could only nod in response before they all proceeded to march out of the temple, pausing only for Yuna and Sora both to bow in return to some of the people around them as they went, after Sora managed to get the prayer bow right of course. Either way, it looked like there was going to be one more story to tell once they were well on their way.

* * *

A short time later, the group had gone a fair ways down the dirt road and was now well away from both the temple and any prying eyes or ears. There were a few Heartless in their path along the way, including some monkey-like ones that Sora quickly identified as Powerwilds, but for the most part, the journey was somewhat uneventful. At least until they finally got enough peace to just talk about their respective groups, said group's mission, and the people in the groups. It did not take too long for Sora to explain his new mission as a Keyblade wielder to Tidus, Wakka, and the rest of their new friends, or the mission that he had taken on as a member of the Avengers, but that was mostly because he was trying to keep everything as brief as possible for the sake of his Midgardian friends. Thankfully, the abridged version seemed to be enough to satisfy the locals of this world they called Spira, and when Sora finished, they all took their time in introducing themselves.

To start things off, Tidus made it a point to properly introduce Yuna to Sora and the others, and while they were surprised to hear that she was probably one of the youngest summoners in ages, they were much more impressed by what being a summoner meant. Apparently, the summoners were people that underwent special training to gain the ability to call forth powerful creatures, known as aeons, and at the end of their training, assuming they were successful in becoming a summoner, they would take on a journey across the world of Spira in order to obtain many other aeons so that they could try to defeat a dangerous monster that threatened all of Spira for good. Those who at least managed to succeed in destroying this monstrosity, known as Sin for a short time, were given the title of High Summoner, and apparently, Yuna's father was the last person to become High Summoner. Knowing this quickly told Sora's group that Yuna was taking on a much greater burden than most other summoners, because she was also doing so while attempting to live up to her father's legacy. Still, it was impressive that she seemed to be able to carry all of that and still soldier on with a smile, so the Midgardians had to believe that she did know what she was doing.

The next person in the group was introduced by Wakka, and he made it a point to mention that this person was easy to anger. Lulu did not let him get away with doing that easily, but the Midgard group all felt that she had really just proved his point. Apparently, Lulu had known Yuna for years, right to the point where the two of them considered each other as sisters, and when Yuna decided to become a guardian, Lulu revealed that she had insisted that her surrogate sister take her on as one of her guardians. That had been Miles's cue to bring up the question of just what a guardian is at last, and Tidus did his best to explain it to them. From what Sora and his friends from Marvel-topia could gather, a guardian was basically like the summoner's bodyguard for the duration of their pilgrimage, and a summoner could ask any number of people to be their guardian, so long as they trusted that person with their life. Hearing that, Sora could not help but feel that Yuna made a smart choice in asking for Wakka and Tidus to be her guardians, because from his experience, those two were definitely someone you could count on in a situation that big. He could still remember how the two had helped him with a couple of bullies the first time they met many years ago.

The next person that the two had introduced was Kimahri, who they explained was a member of other feline-like creatures known as the Ronso tribe. The Ronso were supposedly some of the strongest creatures and warriors on Spira, but for the most part, they remained at their home on Mount Gagazet, safeguarding said mountain from anyone who would dare to threaten its sacred ground, and making sure that only summoners on pilgrimage could pass through to the ancient city that lay beyond the steep climb. Hearing about this ancient city, Zanarkand made Sora wonder if they would find the Keyhole there, but he decided that they should wait and see about that at a later date. That became a lot easier when he learned the name of the blonde girl in the Spiran group.

"You're gonna love hearing this," Wakka whispered to Sora, confusing him on what the ginger haired man meant until Tidus made the introduction.

"Anyways, this is Rikku, Yuna's cousin," Tidus introduced, leading the girl to give a mock bow in response with a smile on her face that reminded Sora and the others of Yuffie a little.

"Wait. Your name's Rikku," Sora gasped in shock. "My best friend's named Riku, too."

"Yeah, I heard," Rikku admitted, apparently having expected this to come up if she ever met any of Tidus and Wakka's other friends from home. "Tidus and Wakka were pretty surprised when they found out my name, and when I heard about your friend, I immediately thought that they were thinking of another girl, at least until they told me he was a guy. My name's pretty much spelled the same way as your friend's, but with an extra 'k.'"

Sora nodded in understanding, but he still had to admit, "Still, that's probably going to get a little confusing if you and Riku ever met up with each other. Especially if you're both in the same room or area a lot."

"Tell us about it," Tidus nodded in agreement. "Me and Wakka have already had a lot of trouble addressing her as Rikku without thinking of the Riku we know from the islands. That's why we mostly just call her Ri."

Sora nodded in reply to that, mentally deciding that he would be doing the same, especially if they ever found out that Riku was here on this world and met up with him, before all attention was finally brought to the swordsman that had stood up for him back at the temple. The swordsman's name was actually Auron, and it turned out that he was one of the guardians that served Yuna's father. It was actually rather admirable and very kind of Auron to become the guardian for his previous charge's daughter if you were to ask Sora, and when he heard that Auron was mainly doing so because he had promised Braska that he would look after Yuna, Sora felt his admiration grow for the swordsman a little more. What really shocked him though was that the man had apparently known Tidus's father, Jecht, and that his friend's dad had been Braska's other guardian.

"Guess that old theory of yours wasn't so crazy after all, huh Sora," Tidus casually remarked once he had finished the explanation behind Auron.

That made the Midgardians stop and stare for a minute, until Peter asked the question that they had all started wondering. "What're you talking about?"

Wakka and Tidus both looked to the members of Sora's group before the blonde of the two asked, "You didn't tell them about that?"

"I…wasn't really sure how to bring it up," Sora hesitantly admitted with a slightly shameful expression. That definitely caught his teammates' attention, because they never once thought that Sora could have been keeping anything secret from them. The guy wore his heart on his sleeve after all, and from what they knew, Sora had told everyone on the Avengers everything that there was to know about himself, or at least every important thing, so to hear that he may have left out a detail or two was certainly a surprise.

"How to bring what up," Steve asked.

"The first reason why he wanted to travel to other worlds in the first place," Wakka replied in the spiky haired teen's place.

"Oh, we know about that. It was because he and his buddy wanted to get out and have a few real adventures," Hawkeye dismissed, feeling a little disappointed after getting his hopes up on hearing some kind of new details that he could have used to embarrass Sora later on. When he noticed that Sora was not saying anything to confirm that, he started to think otherwise, and immediately started catching onto what was being implied here. "You mean that…there was something else besides that?"

"Yeah," Sora replied. He then took a deep breath and finally admitted the truth about his real first reason for wanting to explore other worlds to his friends and teammates. "I wanted…to try and find my father."

"Your father," Steve repeated in question.

Sora just quietly nodded in response and then went on to explain in a little more detail. "He disappeared one day when I was really little, and for the longest time, whenever I asked Mom about where he went, she would always just tell me that he was doing something that would keep both us and many others safe. It was until about a year or so before Kairi showed up on the islands that she finally told me that…he had actually left to travel other worlds, thinking that something bad was happening and that he needed to try and help somehow."

"But what makes you think he actually did get to other worlds," Miles questioned. He did not doubt what Sora was telling them, but it did seem like a bit of a stretch to think that the guy had gone to another world just because he had disappeared one day.

"Well for one thing, Destiny Islands is a really small world, so if anyone had seen him, Mom and I would have heard something long before now, and for another, I actually found a few photographs of places the two of them had been to before I was born, and they definitely didn't look like any place that you could find on the islands. Of course, I found one picture a little more recently that definitely proved he was on Marvel-topia at one point," Sora revealed. He then looked to the resident super soldier and asked, "Cap, do you remember that photo that Tony gave you? The one of you and his father?"

"Of course. A couple of my old comrades were in it as well, one of which was my partner, Bucky," Steve confirmed, though a small frown did cross his face at the memory of his late, young partner.

"The other guy in the picture was my dad," Sora revealed, surprising everyone when they heard that. "I'm sure of it. He looked way too much like the man in all the pictures I ever found at home, and the ones that Mom had shown me to be anyone else."

"Are you sure, Sora," Steve asked. "When I met the man, he had told me that he wasn't seeing anyone at the time, let alone married with a kid on the way."

"I'm positive," Sora confirmed. He then lowered his head a bit and admitted, "This is actually why I didn't say anything sooner. I was worried you'd think I was just trying to grasp at straws in an attempt to find my father, or that I was just being a pathetic little kid who just wanted to reunite with his old man because daddy left him when he was really little."

At that point, the other Avengers fell silent, not sure what to say. They could all understand where Sora was coming from. If he had told them any of this beforehand, some of them probably would have thought something along those lines. After all, if the other man in Cap's picture really was Sora's dad, then that would have meant that Sora should most likely have been close to the same age as Tony by now, even with the time-differences between worlds. Still, from what Steve could remember, the man he had fought alongside of was very young, and he could have married much later on in life before having Sora, but all the same, the idea that Sora's dad had disappeared to another world, or had even traveled to Marvel-topia at one point did seem like a bit of a stretch until now. All of this made it hard for any of the Avengers, Gwen, or Miles to try and say anything that might cheer Sora up, but thankfully, there was one person who had an idea of what to say.

After hearing Sora's explanation, Peter had stepped up and placed a hand on the younger boy's shoulder to get his attention, and said, "None of us would've thought anything like that, Sora. But if any of these guys did, I wouldn't have." Sora immediately looked Peter in the eye, prompting him to explain, "My parents died in a plane crash when I was really little, and if I ever learned that there was a chance they could still be alive, while I would probably be doing everything I could try and find them, I would be just as nervous about telling other people about it as you were about telling us. Trust me, those kinds of things can make anyone skeptical, but it does help to let others in on that so that you can at least give them a chance to try and share the burden with you. You can count on us to have your back in that, or at the very least, you can count on me to do so."

Sora smiled in thanks to Peter, and looking to the rest of his friends from Midgard, who were all giving him reassuring smiles, he knew that they all felt the same way. Cap made that point hit home when he stepped up and said, "I did once say that you looked a lot like that soldier in the photo, so I guess it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to believe that you're his kid. If you want, I could tell you few old war stories later on, just to be sure."

"I'm not sure how much help that would be, aside from telling me what the man was like when you knew him, given that Mom never really talked about hers or Dad's past too much, but I do appreciate that, Steve. Really," Sora nodded in return.

"So Jecht's son come to Spira to become a guardian for a summoner like his father did for that summoner's father, and you end up fighting alongside an old ally of your father. It seems that your stories are far more interesting than you could have ever believed until now," Auron commented, smiling a little as he made this observation.

"Seriously, one of these days, you need to tell me what it is with you and stories," Tidus told his father's old friend. He then looked back to Sora and said, "But what I want to know is if we can hold off on having Sora take us back to the islands until after Yuna has defeated Sin."

Sora immediately cringed a little when he heard that, having skipped over that particular detail in his explanation about how he became a Keyblade wielder and started fighting supervillains and Heartless with the Avengers, but he knew that there was not going to be any hiding it now. "Um, guys…there's something you should know," Sora admitted, and Wakka and Tidus both started to look worried upon hearing how sad Sora's voice had become. That did not stop him from pressing on, as he revealed something neither one of the older boys wanted to hear. "Destiny Islands…It's gone, guys. Our home's gone. The Heartless plunged it into darkness, and now…"

"What…Our home's…" Tidus stuttered, barely able to stand at hearing this news. He likely would have fallen into the nearby stream had Yuna not rushed over to help steady him as best as she could, with Rikku joining in a few seconds later, knowing that her cousin could likely use an extra hand keeping Tidus upright.

"What about everyone who lived there? Your friends, Selphie, or my little brother, Chappu," Wakka questioned, clearly wanting to hear some kind of answer that would give him a little hope for the people he listed.

Sora would have to crush that hope a little, because he admitted, "A friend I made on Marvel-topia told me that it was hard to know what happened to people who lost their world to the Heartless, but as far as I know, most of the people on the Islands are gone, too. I've been trying to find Riku and Kairi since then because they were the only ones I had actually seen before the world and I was thrown over to Marvel-topia. I kinda figured that everyone else had been taken by the Heartless since my Keyblade was the only weapon that was capable of destroying them. I'm sorry."

Now it was Wakka who could not stay on his feet, but unlike Tidus, he had ended up dropping down into a sitting position on a nearby rock, with Lulu quickly coming to his side in an effort to comfort him. Meanwhile, Auron and Kimahri both hung their heads in sorrow for the three islanders, and they were soon joined in that by the three Avengers, and Peter, Miles, and Gwen, too. They all felt that they needed to keep silent while showing some form of sympathy and respect for the three boys. Sure, Wakka and Tidus were only just learning about the fate of their home, but they could all tell that it probably still hurt for Sora to so much as think about it, let alone having to tell his friends, so it was a little while before they all started to get moving again on their journey to find the Keyhole and assist Yuna with her pilgrimage.

* * *

It actually did not take as long as everyone thought for Wakka and Tidus to get it together again, but the two were constantly badgering Sora for some information that would give them a little bit of hope for undoing what the Heartless did to their home, friends, and family. Not that Tidus really asked too much about that last one; he had lived with Wakka and his family since his mother passed away, due to the fact that his father had mysteriously vanished a couple years prior to that, but still, they needed to know if there was a chance. Sora just wished he had a better answer for them. As far as he knew, there was no way to bring the islands back or anyone who was lost to the darkness with them, assuming everyone, or most people on Destiny Islands was lost, and he was not going to give his friends false hope by lying to them. All the same, none of it had distracted anyone from their current tasks, and they were all soon moving along the trail again so they could reach the next destination on Yuna's pilgrimage.

Their travels had actually led them into a very startling situation, as a massive, blue elephant-like creature soon crossed their paths, prompting Hawkeye to draw his bow and ready an arrow out of instinct, thinking that they were about to be attacked by a vicious monster. Thankfully, Auron was able to step in and stop Clint before he fired the arrow and stated that there was nothing to worry about. Clint was still skeptical though. "You're sure that this…this…thing isn't going to attack us," Clint asked as he studied the massive creature with wary eyes.

"Positive," Auron tiredly replied for what seemed to be the tenth time. It was only the fourth though, as Sora, Peter, and Miles could easily tell you since they had been the ones who were counting.

Lulu apparently found the archer's concern very amusing, as she chuckled a little before she gave her own reassurances to the group at large, or at least the members who were not already aware of the information. "Relax. The shoopuf is harmless," the black mage said. "The Hypello use them as pack animals in order to carry travels over the Moonflow. Should any travelers ever fall off, the shoopuf will more than likely lift them back out of the water again and into its saddle with its long nose."

"And you're sure that riding these things are safe," Peter asked.

"Said the man who, apparently, swings around New York on a very thin web, while doing all kinds of crazy stunts and acrobatics," Gwen sardonically pointed out with an angry look in Peter's direction.

Peter could only let out a sheepish chuckle at that remark while glancing away, not wanting to look directly at the angry blonde, but that exchange seemed to go widely unnoticed, as Yuna merely chuckled before she answered his previous question. "Don't worry; it's perfectly safe, and a lot of fun, too." She then let out a wistful sigh as she added, "I haven't ridden one in so long."

"You've been on one of these," Tidus asked in surprise.

"Well, just once. Ten years ago, with Kimahri," Yuna admitted, turning to the Ronso in question to see if he remembered that.

Apparently he did, as he let out a small smile before he revealed something that Yuna seemed to have forgotten. "Shoopuf shook. Yuna fall in water. Shoopuf scoop up Yuna with long nose. Yuna jump in three more times for fun…Kimahri worried."

"Ehehe…Whoops," was all that Yuna could say in response with a sheepish and embarrassed smile on her face, while the others found themselves trying not to laugh at the image of the rather polite and proper girl doing something so silly like that.

"Yuna had fun. Kimahri happy," the Ronso then added in an attempt to reassure his friend. Judging by her small smile, it did seem to drive away any sheepish feelings, but it did nothing for her embarrassment.

With all of that said and done, it was not long before everyone had boarded the next shoopuf to head over the Moonflow, and with that, they all felt that they could relax a little more. Of course, with this sense of peace, there also came a tense silence that told everyone that now was the time to be revealing a few other details as well. Out of all the topics that they needed to discuss, everyone knew that the biggest issue was the one revolving around the web-head that was just recently unmasked before them all, and the look Gwen was throwing at Peter made it clear that she was not going to wait any more.

"Okay, okay," Peter appeased, raising his hands up to show he was willing to cooperate. "What do you want to know?"

"Do you really have to ask," Gwen questioned.

"Perhaps it would be best if you simply start at the beginning, Mr. Parker," T'Challa suggested.

Peter nodded in reply, but no one missed the sad look in his eyes when he did, and they could all tell that this was probably going to be a lot harder for Peter than they thought. "Well…I guess if we're going from the beginning, I should explain how I even got my powers in the first place," Peter figured. "Gwen, you remember that field trip we went on back in sophomore year to the lab at ESU?"

"Like I told Professor Warren, it wasn't something I could ever forget. Why," Gwen asked, not sure where he was going with that.

Looking around, Peter could tell that none of the others were getting it either, but it was a lot more understandable in their cases. "Back then, the lab was run by Doctor Curt Connors and his wife, Martha, and they were doing some incredible work. The most important thing, at least in the case of this story, is one of their genetics experiments. Namely, the fact that they had managed to genetically alter their collection of spiders in order to combine the most impressive traits from multiple different species into fifteen super spiders."

"Hey, I think I remember seeing those whenever we met up with you for tutoring at the lab," Miles noted with excitement.

"Yeah, but there were only fourteen spiders. One of them was missing," Gwen pointed out.

"It wasn't for long," Peter admitted, surprising him a little. "I ended up finding out where the spider went to right after it bit me."

Everyone was silent for a minute, until Clint's eyes widened, indicating that he figured out what Peter was leading into. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," Clint groaned. "Are you saying that you got your powers from…"

"From that spider bite, yeah," Peter finished. "Things were a bit hazy afterwards, mainly because of the splitting headache I had for what seemed like hours, but eventually, that headache turned into more of a buzzing or tingling sensation, like something was trying to warn me, and when I turned to see what could've been causing it, I saw a car barreling right towards me. I jumped out of the way on instinct, only to end up with the surprise of sticking to the side of a building, and quite a few feet up from the ground too. Out of curiosity, I started trying to go further, and I found that I was not just sticking, but able to climb the wall without any kind of footholds or anything. When I got to the roof, I grabbed a metal pole to help pull me up, and the thing crumbled in my grip, and the thing is, I was barely even squeezing that much, if at all. My shock at seeing that caused me to lose my grip and then drop down, and hit a flag pole before crashing through an awning."

"Ouch," Sora, Rikku, Tidus, Wakka, and Yuna all said while everyone else just winced a little.

"Why didn't you just spin a web," Miles asked, clearly confused as to why he did not do that. "I mean…you can spin webs right? Didn't you try and do that before he could hit the ground?"

"Uh…no, I can't spin webs. At least, not on my own," Peter revealed. He then pulled off one of his gloves so that everyone could see the web-shooter underneath, and removed one of the cartridges of web-fluid from it so that he could show it off. "I found out pretty quickly that spinning webs was the one spider ability that I didn't get, and that's why I have these wrist devices, which I call my web-shooters to spin webs. I make the web-fluid that's stored in these special, pressurized containers, and until they're exposed to air, the webs remain in a liquid state, though they still retain their adhesive properties."

"In English, Peter," Sora requested.

"Or Yevonnite, or even Al Bhed," Tidus added on.

"Basically, the capsules keep his webs from becoming like spider webs until he shoots them out, but they're still really sticky even while they're in the capsules," Rikku filled in.

"Exactly," Peter confirmed with a snap of his fingers, feeling a little impressed that Rikku was able to figure that out. Feeling a sudden need to show off his technical genius, he then went on to explain a little more about the devices themselves. "The web-shooters also have a rotating carousel that can help me load a fresh cartridge when one runs out, but I do still carry extra cartridges on my utility belt just in case they all run out while I'm swinging or in the middle of a fight. The trigger is actually this pressure sensitive electrode here in the palm of my hand, which requires exact from my two middle fingers in order to activate them. That's what keeps them from accidentally activating when I make a fist or grab something. By adjusting pressure at the nozzle, I can fire a strong, thin web-line, or a fine, wide spread."

"Can you show us," Yuna asked, feeling rather curious, and from the looks on everyone else's faces, they were actually pretty eager to see the devices in action.

Peter just nodded in reply, and then aimed at an empty area of their carriage before firing off a few webs, until an image of his masked face had been made in that very spot. "Impressive," Lulu admitted. "Though I can't help but wonder if these devices of yours would be one of the forbidden machina or not."

"Machina," Sora asked.

"That's what they call any form of technology on Spira," Tidus clarified. "Apparently, a good deal of it is bad in the eyes of everyone who follows the teachings of Yevon."

"Got it," Sora nodded in reply.

"I think we should be more concerned about how hard it will be for the Hypello to clean that out of the carriage," Auron stated.

"Don't worry. It's biodegradable like actual spider webbing," Peter reassured him, only to get blank looks that said they had no idea what that meant. "It means that the webs will dissolve in about an hour, two at the most."

"That explains why SHIELD was never able to find any at the places you were spotted in when they went in to investigate," Hawkeye remarked, remembering a few reports about those investigations, and a few times when they had him brought in to look around those very locations. "How'd you figure out how to make that web-fluid stuff anyway?"

"I came up with it myself," Peter admitted. "I sometimes think that when the spider bit me, it transferred some instinctive knowledge of what chemicals and enzymes to combine in order to make various types of webbing."

"So you made the web-fluid, got your web-shooters, and then you decided to be a superhero, right," Gwen questioned, evenly. She was impressed with what Peter had figured out and his technical skills, but she was still pretty upset about her best friend keeping this secret from her.

"Uh…not exactly," Peter admitted. "When I got my powers, I wasn't interested in catching bad guys. I just wanted to find some way to cash in on my new talents."

"What do you mean cash in," Steve asked, not entirely sure he liked what was being implied.

"Well…after my parents died, my Aunt May and Uncle Ben had raised me like their own son, but they weren't really financial wizards, so I figured that I could use my powers to help with that. When I found an ad in the paper offering a thousand bucks for winning a wrestling match, I figured that would be my big chance," Peter admitted, making Gwen's face finally turn a little more sorrowful, knowing just how important Peter's family were to him. Peter did not seem to notice, as he just kept on with his story. "I didn't want anyone recognizing me though, because…well, it'd be a little strange if 'Puny Parker' suddenly became tough enough to take on a big wrestling champ, so I made this costume, and when I stepped into the ring, I did so as the spectacular Spider-Man."

"I'm guessing you won the fight, ya," Wakka asked. "I mean, it would make sense unless the other guy was able to do all the same things as you, or something better."

"You'd be surprised how often I've won against guys that were tougher or more powerful than I am, but yeah, I did win, and very easily at that. Too bad I didn't get anything to show for it," Peter revealed, confusing everyone with that last bit. "While the guy running the whole thing was willing to give me the money, I had to sign an exclusive management contract with him first. I wasn't really planning on making the wrestling thing a regular gig, and when I told him as such, he said that I wasn't going to get any money out of him at all otherwise."

"What?! That's not fair," Sora snapped in protest.

"Yeah, I said the same thing, and all he said was that it wasn't his problem, so I didn't think it was my problem when he got robbed like two seconds later," Peter shrugged. "I mean, I didn't really need to do that much in order to stop the crook, heck, I didn't even need to use any of my powers to stop him, but I was still pretty upset about getting cheated, so I figured this was just karma giving the guy what he deserved." Peter then paused to hang his head a bit before he finished in barely more than a whisper, "I never would've thought that I was going to be the one who was being set up to get hit by some bad karma, though. At least, not until I got home that night."

"What do you mean," Rikku asked, and everyone else was wondering the same thing until Gwen's eyes suddenly went wide.

"Peter…was that…was that the night…" the blonde stuttered, now looking very concerned for her friend.

"Yeah. When I got home that night, I found Aunt May crying, and I found out it was because…the police had recently been by to tell her that my uncle had been shot, and…he didn't make it," Peter revealed, pulling gasps of shock from everyone. "At that point, I was really pissed. I didn't care about anything else. All I knew was that someone had stolen the life of a good man; a man with a loving family, all for his lousy car, and I wanted to get even. Sure, Peter Parker may not have been able to do much, but nothing was going to stop Spider-Man."

At that point, no one was sure if they wanted him to continue, and Cap was the first to step up and say something. "Peter, if you feel like you need to stop and take a breath for a minute…"

"No, I'm fine. Really," Peter attempted to reassure the super soldier. Steve did not seem to really buy it, but he could tell that the kid wanted to keep going, so he sat back down and let him. "I managed to track down and corner the guy easily enough, and I was more than ready to just take him down and leave whatever was left for the cops. When the moment came though and I had him dead to rights, I finally got a look at his face, and at that moment, only one question went through my mind…All I could think was…'What have I done?'"

"Why…why would you think that," Miles asked, his mouth suddenly feeling really dry, and from a look at the others, he could tell that they were not that much better off.

"Because…it was the crook from the arena; the one I should've stopped but didn't," Peter revealed. If the gasps from before were just startled, then the ones that came out now were definitely horrified, and the only one who had not let out such a reaction was Gwen. All she could do was just sit there and silently stare at Peter in both shock and sadness, while tears began building up in the corners of her eyes, not for her, but for her best friend and what he must have been going through in that moment of his life.

Thinking of all that, Gwen could not stop herself from moving to sit next to Peter and place a reassuring hand on his as she tried to say, "Peter, it wasn't your fault. There's no way you could've known what would happen."

"Maybe, but it doesn't change the fact that I ignored Uncle Ben's most important lesson, and he had to pay the price for it," Peter insisted. "After that night, I swore on his grave that I would never forget that with great power comes great responsibility, that I would never look the other way again, and it started by letting Uncle Ben's killer live so that he could pay for his crimes in prison. I wasn't going to forgive that man for what he did, and there's a chance I never will, but I'm never going to become something that he wouldn't approve of. That was the moment when I truly chose to be Spider-Man, no matter what may happen."

"But why keep this a secret from everyone? From your aunt, from your friends…from me," Gwen questioned, still not quite getting that particular detail.

"Well for one thing, Aunt May had a heart attack just from being in the area of my first fight against the Sinister Six, so imagine how she might react if she found out I was risking my life fighting bad guys every time I step out the door," Peter told them, and Gwen had to admit that he had a point. May Parker was a gentle, kind soul that should not have to worry about things like that, and while she was strong in her own way, she was prone to overestimating her own strength at times, much like her nephew, in Gwen's opinion. "But more than that, I had already lost Uncle Ben because of my being Spider-Man, and I was afraid that…that if anyone else found out, they could end up getting hurt. It's not that I didn't want to tell you, Gwen; there were so many times that I came close to actually doing so, but if there was a chance that it could put you in danger…I just…I couldn't live with myself."

Gwen was truly touched by how much Peter cared about her, and apparently, so was everyone else, as Yuna, Rikku, and even Lulu let out small coos of adoration at how cute the whole scene was, while most of the boys all just smiled at the sight of the two and how touching this little moment between them was. The only ones who showed no visible reaction were Auron, Kimahri, and T'Challa, but the last of three was only like that because he still had his cowl on. If you were to ask Tidus, he could have sworn up and down that Auron was actually finding their moment rather sweet as well, but it was hard to really say what Kimahri was thinking. At least until the Ronso finally spoke up, breaking the moment between the two.

"Peter strong," Kimahri stated, confusing everyone a little. "Peter let criminal live, despite what criminal had done to Peter's uncle. Kimahri would have killed criminal without second thought if Kimahri were in Peter's place, but Peter decided to let criminal pay for crimes in prison. Kimahri think Peter's uncle would be proud of Peter."

"Yeah, I think so, too," Sora agreed. "And besides, from what I've heard, you've done a lot of other good things since you became a hero, and a lot of lives were saved because of you. New York would definitely be a lot worse off without Spider-Man, so I'm sure your uncle would be proud of you, Pete."

Looking around, Peter could tell that everyone agreed with the two's words, but it was not until he saw the way Gwen was smiling at him in agreement that he finally believed them. Hearing all of that from everyone, combined with getting so much baggage off his chest, Peter had to smile in relief and said, "Thanks you guys. Really, that means a lot."

"You deserve that kind of praise and a lot more with what you've had to endure, son. If anything, New York owes you far more than it does the Avengers," Captain America stated, adding his own two cents.

"Well, maybe not that much more," Clint started to joke, only to get a sharp elbow in the side from Sora in response. "OW! What? I was just kidding."

They all got a brief laugh out of that, and when it finally ceased, Auron decided to move to the next matter of business on their plate. So, turning to Sora and the Avengers, he got right to the point and said, "So, now that we've heard your friend's origin and reasons for doing what he does, and you know the reason for our journey, I think it's high time those of us who don't know about your quest were brought up to speed. What exactly is your reason for being here, Keyblade master?"

"I told you already, just Sora is fine," the Keybearer in question insisted. He waited a minute to see if anyone protested that request, but when he heard none, he decided to dive right into the shortest version he could give of the explanation. "There's this guy, Night Hunter, who's working with a lot of really bad people, going around and setting the Heartless loose on other worlds. Because of the Heartless, a lot of worlds have fallen into darkness, and more will as well, including this one, but if we can find the Keyhole for this world and close it with my Keyblade, we'll be able to stop them from drowning Spira in darkness like they did Destiny Islands."

"Sounds easy enough," Wakka commented.

"Trust me, kid. It's never that easy," Hawkeye disputed.

"He's right. Night Hunter's no push-over. I should know, I've fought him twice now, and he's really good. I think there's a chance he's just as good if not better than Riku," Sora revealed. Hearing that definitely made Tidus and Wakka worried, especially since they knew just how skilled Riku was in a fight, having fought against him in a three-on-one match with Sora at one point, so to hear Sora say that someone might be better than Riku, they would have to be crazy to not be a little worried. "Not only that, but on some of the worlds he's gone to, he's also given other bad guys the power to control the Heartless, so there could be a chance that he would do the same thing here."

Apparently, Lulu found that to be a reason to relax a little bit, because the first thing she said after hearing that last piece of information was, "I don't think we have too much to worry about then. The only 'bad guy' we have on Spira is Sin."

"Trust me, bright eyes, there's always some form of bad guy, especially beyond some crime against certain religious teachings or whatever," Hawkeye countered.

"No, not that sin. She means this giant, mega-powerful monster that's literally named Sin. You know, the one we told you about that Yuna has to defeat," Tidus corrected. "It's been threatening Spira for thousands of years, and even when it seems like it's been defeated, after a short time, it always comes back again to bring a path of death and destruction in its wake."

Hearing about that very creature again reminded the Avengers of how worrying the beast had sounded to them the first time they were told of it. How could something so powerful and dangerous be allowed to go on a nearly uninterrupted rampage like that for thousands of years? Surely someone would have found a way to permanently stop such a creature by now, right? Looking around at the folks who were native to this world quickly told the Avengers and their young friends that was not the case, but there was something else to the sadness behind Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, and Kimahri's eyes that they could not quite put their finger on at that moment. They had to worry about that later though, because they needed to be absolutely sure that there really seemed to be no way of stopping Sin.

"Hasn't anyone tried to do something? Like build some kind of mega shield to protect the cities or a canon that can weaken it," Miles asked.

"You forget, a great deal of machina are forbidden by the teachings of Yevon, so no one's really considered using them for such a purpose, at least not all that often," Auron reminded the young boy.

"You actually just missed a huge operation where several warriors tried to destroy Sin using one such forbidden machina," Wakka revealed, and Sora could not help but note the heavy amount of sorrow in his voice that just seemed so out of place for his older friend. "The whole thing was a disaster. Not only did Sin get out nearly unscathed, but the number of people that were seriously wounded was only exceeded by the number of people who died."

"Yuna must have performed the sending for several hours straight without any rest afterwards," Rikku added on.

"The sending," T'Challa questioned, with the rest of his companions wondering the same thing he was.

"It's a special ceremony that summoners perform in order to guide the dead into the afterlife. If they don't, those who died will likely come back as fiends, or some other horrible monster," Rikku explained. She then paused to think for a minute before admitting, "Come to think of it, I think that some of them have actually come back as those Heartless things you told us about."

"Huh," Sora hummed in response, now wondering if this sending ritual would work on the Heartless as well. Then again, considering that Rikku said the sending needed to be performed before someone was transformed into a fiend, he doubted that was the case.

"So if there aren't any weapons or defensive measures, does that mean that summoners are the only ones able to so much as defeat this Sin," Captain America asked.

"That is the purpose of the summoner's pilgrimage," Auron replied as simply as he could, while Rikku just seemed to look off to the side with a bit of a scowl. Only Clint seemed to notice that though, but then again, he was called Hawkeye for reasons other than the fact that he never missed a target.

He filed it away for later, as everyone decided to just leave it alone for now and focus on the more important things; namely, a list of possible individuals who would likely ally with Night Hunter and the Heartless. "Perhaps the man we met when we first arrived on this world could be such a villain," T'Challa offered.

"You mean that creepy looking guy with blue hair? What was his name? Say-yore," Miles asked.

"Seymour," Sora corrected. "And I do have to agree with you on that. There was something about that guy that gave me a bad feeling in my gut."

"Surely you don't mean Maester Seymour Guado," Lulu questioned in surprise.

"You know the man," Steve asked in wonder.

"All of Spira knows him just as they know of all those who hold the title of maester," Lulu explained. "They are people of high authority and those who lead the people of Spira, or at the very least, they lead some part of Spira's governing body. Lord Seymour is actually the leader of his people, the Guado, like his father before him, Maester Jyscal. He holds as much desire to see peace brought to Spira and an end to Sin as anyone else."

"Though one must wonder just how he plans to aid in that endeavor," Auron pointed out.

"So either way, there's a good chance he's off the list of possible enemies," Gwen asked.

"I don't know about that," Peter suddenly said, turning all attention to him. "Remember what I said about my Spider-Sense? About how it's like a buzzing or tingling in my head that warns me of danger, basically acting like a sixth sense for trouble? Well, when we met Seymour earlier, it was going pretty crazy even after all the Heartless were destroyed."

"Maybe it was just going off because his guards were so nervous about us," Sora offered, wanting to stay optimistic, even if he did get some bad vibes from the guy himself.

"No, that's not likely," Peter dismissed. "Trust me, my Spider-Sense wouldn't have gone off just because someone was a little nervous. It only reacts when it picks up on an actual, honest to god threat, be it an attack, or just an enemy that's close by."

"I hardly think that's a valid reason to be accusing a man who serves a leader for his people of betraying us all," Lulu pointed out, clearly refusing to believe that a maester of Yevon would consider such an action.

"It's still a possibility to consider, unless you have a few other suspects in mind," Captain America calmly pointed out, trying to play peacemaker before things got heated.

"Perhaps…the Al Bhed," Lulu offered.

"The what," all the Avengers chorused as one, not noticing the downcast look that appeared on Rikku's face upon hearing that accusation.

"The Al Bhed are people who do not follow the teachings of Yevon, but instead, make their home out in deserts and on the ocean, while salvaging for old machina so that they can attempt to get them working again. Most times, they are successful, but it does not change the fact that they go against the teachings of Yevon by doing so," Lulu explained. From the way she spoke, it was clear that she did not approve of what the Al Bhed did, but they did not get the impression that she hated them either.

Yuna then seemed like she had something to add to that, but hesitated before she spoke. "I'm actually half Al Bhed, myself, on my mother's side. Many people doubted my father would be able to defeat Sin because of the fact that he had married an Al Bhed woman, but he seemed to just laugh it all off and say that it would be interesting to prove them wrong."

"From what you have told us, it seems that he did just that," T'Challa noted. "You must be very proud of him."

"Yes…Yes, I am," Yuna admitted, but no one could miss the sad note in her voice. The Avengers were about to question her on it when the shoopuf finally came to a stop on the other side of the river, and they all began to off-load from the elephantine creature.

"Well, when it comes to the Heartless or bad guys that may be working with them, I guess we'll just have to watch our backs for now, huh," Hawkeye figured.

"Pretty much," Sora shrugged, not really knowing what else they could say or do at this point.

"Then for now, perhaps you would all consider joining us on the rest of my pilgrimage," Yuna asked.

"I'm not sure we have much of a place to be doing so," Captain America admitted. He wanted to help protect the young lady while keeping Sora from being separated from his long lost friends again, but at the same time, he was not sure that they really had a right to help on this since they were not officially part of Yuna's group.

"Captain America has a point," T'Challa stated before anyone could argue with him. "From what you have told us, only a summoner's guardians may travel and enter the temples with them on their pilgrimage, and while we are all powerful warriors and protectors in our own rights, none of us are guardians. Not to mention, Sora's status as a wielder of the Keyblade would likely prevent him from becoming a guardian."

"He wouldn't need to. Keyblade wielders are an exception to that rule," Auron revealed. "I should know, since Braska, Jecht, and I worked with three Keyblade wielders during Braska's pilgrimage, and they were allowed to enter the temples with us without anyone so much as batting an eye."

That comment seemed to leave the Avengers in shock, each of them wondering if those three wielders could be the same ones that they had heard about so often before now, but in Sora's case, it also caused a sharp pain to suddenly flash through his skull. It passed very quickly though, so no one really noticed, but he knew that it was likely a sign that he was due to have a vision again at some point soon. Not that anyone had much of a chance to do so, as Yuna quickly took the reins of the conversation again with an offer of her own.

"If it really worries you that much, then…I would like for each of you to become my guardians," the young summoner requested.

"All of us," Peter asked as he gestured to his group. "Including Miles and Gwen?"

"Yes," Yuna nodded. "Is that…too much trouble for you?"

"I speak for all of us on the Avengers when I say we'd be honored if you'll have us, but as for Spider-Man and his friends, that's up to them," Captain America stated, with T'Challa and Clint both nodding in agreement.

"I'm in," Peter immediately agreed, surprising everyone by how quickly he had. "What? I did say that I swore to never look the other way again, and not doing everything I can to help out here definitely feels like I'm looking the other way. But…well, I'm not so sure that it's a good idea to let Gwen and Miles do this."

"Peter Benjamin Parker, are you saying you don't think we can help," Gwen demanded, sounding more than a little mad at that.

"No! No, I'm not saying that at all," Peter rapidly insisted. "But…well, Gwen, you and Miles don't have any powers or special skills. Not like me and the rest of these guys."

"That doesn't mean we can't help," Miles insisted. "Like you said, great power comes with great responsibility, and I'm not just going to sit on the sidelines if I can help somehow. I mean, sure, I can't really help with fighting too much, but I'm sure there's some way I could help out."

"Same goes for me," Gwen added. "Besides, my dad's the police captain for NYPD, remember? Self-defense classes are a must, and that became even more true after I was kidnapped by Doc Ock during his whole Master Planner thing last New Year's, as you should know since you had to dive in and save me."

Peter was not sure what to say to that, and it showed in how he could only rub the back of his neck in a sheepish manner, as if trying to think of some other excuse. Finally, he sighed in defeat and said, "Okay, if you guys want, but just promise me you'll be careful. I…I don't want you getting hurt."

Even though the statement was for both Miles and Gwen, no one missed how Peter was looking directly at his childhood best friend when he said that, or the way Gwen blushed when she noticed this, even as she silently nodded in return. At another time, a great deal of teasing would have likely followed, most of it coming from Sora, and probably Rikku since she seemed to be the type, but no one did so. Partly because the moment just felt far too serious to be spoiled in that way, and partly because they still had a trip to continue.

"Well then, let's get going everyone. To Guadosalam, and from there, to the temple in Macalania," Yuna cheered, and everyone let out their own exuberant cheer of agreement in reply. All the same, some of them still could not shake the bad feeling that they were getting about all of this right now.

* * *

While the heroes were all having their exchange of information and stories, and simultaneously getting the wheels turning on their team-up adventure, there were things in Guadosalam of a much more shady nature taking place. So shady in fact, that you could swear that it was dark enough to be night time, but then again, that may have had to do with the guest that Seymour Guado was currently entertaining in his home at the moment. "You know, I was under the impression that you would be able to keep the boy from interfering in our business on other worlds," Seymour remarked to said guest as he swished his drink around in his hand. "And yet, not only has he interfered in your attempts to drown Atlantis in darkness, but he also brought an end to Hades's little scheme at the Olympus Coliseum. Now, he's suddenly appeared here with some of his colorful friends, and while I am grateful that he appeared when he did, I can't help but wonder why that is, or even why the Heartless suddenly decided to attack me for now reason."

"Loki warned you, didn't he, about letting the darkness get too close to your heart," questioned the rather laid-back looking Night Hunter. His helmet mask was currently off, but his voice still remained in its distorted state of sounding like two people talking at once, while his actual face was well-hidden in the shadows to the point where no one could make it out without having seen his face before. "You should've known that your little stunt at Mi'ihen would have spurned the Heartless into acting. You may have convinced others of your performance, but the Heartless can still smell whenever the darkness in one's heart begins to stir more greatly than usual."

"Hmm, you almost sound worried for me," Seymour noted with an amused tone, showing he did not seem to care about that little warning. He then turned serious again and said, "That still doesn't explain the boy's presence though. I thought you said that he would be unable to reach other worlds without the aid of the king's men."

"Well, it seems he found a way around that problem using the Keyblade. Either way, it doesn't matter. As long as you do your job right, he won't be a problem," Night Hunter shrugged off.

"Yes, but then again…perhaps he could be of some use to me," Seymour mused while a devious grin started to creep up on his face.

"You can forget about involving him in your little plans for that summoner you're so obsessed with. He may be a child, but he's not that gullible," Night Hunter dismissed, but the Guado maester could have sworn that there was a hint of a threatening undertone in his voice.

"Why I haven't the faintest idea what you mean," Seymour tried to casually play off, but he was not fooling the dark swordsman one bit. When he realized this, he merely moved on to another topic and said, "Besides, I am not obsessed with Lady Yuna. I merely desire the power she possesses, and being the daughter of Lord Braska, along with what I've already seen of her abilities, I'd say that there's no better candidate for my ambitions than her."

"Oh of course. No signs of being a creeper in the slightest, here," Night Hunter sarcastically countered. "Just make sure you don't forget about your agreement with Loki."

"Isn't that why you're here," Seymour questioned. "After all, why else would he send his little errand boy than to play nursemaid when you could be doing something so much more important or better with your time, such as carrying on with your own little quest?"

The next thing that Seymour knew, Night Hunter's demonic-looking blade was at his throat, startling the maester with how quickly the young man had closed the distance between them, yet leaving him very impressed with the swordsman's control over his power. "You would do well to keep out of things that have nothing to do with you, Guado," Night Hunter snarled. "Don't forget, unlike me, you can easily be replaced."

Seymour sneered in response to that, but he knew that the young man was not wrong. There was just something about Night Hunter that set him apart from the rest of the members on Loki's little Council of Villains, and it was not just his skills with a blade, nor his control over darkness. There was a certain presence to the young villain that Seymour found to be a little disconcerting, or at least that was as much as he was willing to admit to anyone when it came to his feelings about the boy before him. Still, that did not mean he appreciated being bullied like this, especially when the person trying to push him was a child. Before he could call out Night Hunter on the matter, there was a knock at the door that broke the tension, and Night Hunter had put distance between them again, dismissed his sword, and replaced his helmet on his head all within the time it took for Seymour to recompose himself and grant the person outside entrance.

"Forgive the interruption, Lord Seymour," Seymour's retainer, Tromell apologized. "But it would seem that Lady Yuna and her party are just moments away from entering Guadosalam."

"Ah, that is good news. Won't you do me the courtesy of extending an invitation to them, Tromell? There's something I would very much like to discuss with the lady summoner," Seymour requested.

"Right away, sir," Tromell bowed in return, and he quickly left the room to carry out his master's request.

Night Hunter could tell that it was time to make himself scarce, so he summoned forth his usual dark portal and prepared to leave, but not before Seymour called out, "You know, I am curious, how are your efforts in locating her developing?"

Night Hunter paused just as he was about to set one foot through the portal, but he kept silent all the same before he glanced over his shoulder with what one could only assume was a cold expression as he said, "Just remember to guard your heart well against the Heartless, lest you suffer a worse fate than Hades had. And remember…the Keyblade wielder is mine."

Seymour just smirked at the boy's response, even as Night Hunter left. Despite the fact that the young man did not give a straight answer, Seymour still got all the information he needed from the lad, and that helped him to ensure he was completely calmed down from the insult the boy had dealt him while prepared to meet with the young summoner and her party of guardians.

* * *

 ** _AN: If I was a follower of Yevon, this would be the part where I would say Praise be to Yevon, because whoo-wee, that took some doing! But hey, it's all out now, and we've gotten a look at this series' iteration of Spira. Now, let's go over the differences on the Final Fantasy side of things before we do anything else: first off, Rikku's already part of the group before they got to Guadosalam, this is partly because Wakka is a Destiny Islands native, and I felt that it was necessary for Yuna to have another good friend on Besaid besides Lulu and Kimahri. Also, Auron is here too, but don't think that means he won't somehow find his way to Olympus and the Underworld, if I decide to go that route with this series. Finally, it looks like Keyblade wielders are considered just as important as summoners on Spira, huh? And look at that, Yuna's dad worked alongside three particular Keyblade wielders. Now who do you suppose that could be?_**

 ** _Sora: Yeah, I don't think it's going to take too much guess work to figure that one out._**

 ** _AN: I know that. Moving right along, already the Avengers have had an encounter with Seymour, and they did not get a very good first impression. I'll admit, a bit of that was self-projection on my part, as the first time I saw the guy, I got a pretty ominous and creepy vibe from him too. The dude just doesn't scream friendly at all, even when he's pretending to be a good guy, which, to be honest, he kinda fails at most of the time if you ask me._**

 ** _Sora: Speaking of Seymour, it looks like he's having some trouble when controlling the Heartless._**

 ** _AN: Well, that's to be expected, because as we saw in the first Kingdom Hearts game, not all of the members on the Villain Council could handle controlling the Heartless. Prime example: Jafar. I just felt that it would be necessary to have more than one person on the council being that susceptible to the Heartless's dark powers. Who better than Seymour?_**

 ** _Hawkeye: You know, I've gotta ask, in the original Final Fantasy X game, Tidus, Wakka, and all of those other guys are a lot older than they were in Kingdom Hearts, so what're you aiming for with their age here?_**

 ** _AN: Well, I didn't want to age them down too much, as that would make a few story factors a little more difficult to work with, but I still wanted some of them close to Sora's age. The end result is what you read here. Tidus is close to the same age as Riku, and Wakka is a year older than that. Yuna and Rikku about the same age as Tidus, just so you guys know, and for those of you who may have been worried about the Tidus &Yuna pairing here. That is going to happen, by the way. Like I'm going to break that up._**

 ** _Speaking of Rikku, I know some of you were probably hoping to see Yuffie and her meet at some point, because, come on! Like we don't all know what kind of excitement would follow that, am I right? But, sorry to say, it's just not in the cards this time. Also, yeah, every time that the Destiny Island crew talk to her, they'll refer to her as "Ri" (pronounced "Ree", in case you couldn't figure that out on your own), since they're so used to their Riku, and that will be how they refer to her if she and Riku are ever in the same room/area together. I know you all will be able to tell the difference, but just keep in mind that the nickname is for the sake of the characters more than anything else._**

 ** _Finally, Night Hunter returns with his little ominous scene with Seymour. If you've played Final Fantasy X, or at least know the game's story, I'm sure that you are all familiar with what Seymour's plans were, so I won't go into too much detail on that. Though I will say that there may be some changes since he can control the Heartless._**

 ** _Spider-Man: Hang on. Aren't you forgetting something? Like anything involving my end of the spectrum?_**

 ** _AN: What's there to really say? You gave them your origin story, showed off your smarts by explaining details about your web-shooters and the web-fluid, and it looks like any ill feelings Gwen had about you keeping the secret were easily dealt with._**

 ** _Spider-Man: How about the reason for that bruise Gwen had at the beginning of the chapter? Or even why you had Sora learn healing off-screen?_**

 ** _AN: Well, you can't expect to see Sora learning all of his spells in the middle of the story, or a fight, and this was the perfect time to debut his healing magic. As for the matter of Gwen's bruise, well...let's just call it foreshadowing on events that are soon to come. Very soon._**

 ** _Spider-Man: I'm still really worried._**

 ** _AN: I'd be concerned if you weren't, considering that this is your first love we're talking about here, but no time to go into any more on that now. We've got wrap things up and send everyone home until next time, so Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The adventure in Spira seems to be filled with so many twists and turns, that Sora and his friends may end up feeling a little dizzy long before they can even get halfway through the journey on this world. A short stop in Guadosalam leads to an encounter that has left Yuna both flustered and confused, and Tidus rather agitated, while moments later, their paths cross with the Al Bhed people at last. Not only that, but it seems that there are dark secrets lurking around every corner, so it's no wonder that there are so many Heartless coming after them. At the end of the day though, where will the darkest thing that they encounter come from? Will it be from their enemies, or perhaps, from their friends? Beliefs, values, and more will be called into question, with our heroes caught in the middle, all in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Okay, just to be clear, I am going to do my best to take a Kingdom Hearts approach on the story of Final Fantasy X, but don't think that means we'll see the end of that story by next chapter. Honestly, I'm thinking it just may extend into three parts, myself, just so we can have everything that I plan to have in here. But anyways, that's for another time. For now..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	11. Journey Through Spira

**_AN: It's official. This is the first world in one of my Kingdom Hearts stories to be divided up into more than two parts, since the first visit to Hollow Basiton in Dual Keys. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about that, but I do hope you guys are happy to see that the newest chapter for Hearts of Avengers is now out. Huh? Huh?!_**

 ** _[audience applause]_**

 ** _Yeah, I thought so._**

 ** _Yuffie: Hey, by the way, how's coming up with a codename for me going?_**

 ** _AN: Not all that well, I have to admit. One person did offer up the idea of having you be called Shadow, but then you have to remember that there would be some confusion from that since most of the Heartless you normally fight are also called Shadows. Although, I have considered the idea of Kage._**

 ** _Hawkeye: Hey, I don't know about you guys, but I'd like to get on with the main show and see if we get home this chapter._**

 ** _AN: Weren't you listening earlier? I just said that this isn't the end of the Spira adventure, so of course you're not getting back to Midgard this chapter. But you are right, we do need to hurry this along, so let's kick things off with some review answers._**

 ** _First off, to "CT7567Rules", sorry that I didn't answer your previous review last chapter. I totally meant to, but it seems that it slipped my mind. Anyways, in answer to that previous review's questions, we will see Star Wars enter this story at a later point. As far as Power Rangers summons go, that would be in my other Kingdom Hearts series, Keyblades Unleashed, not this one. Sorry. Oh, and just for the record, Lightning is from Final Fantasy XIII not X. She will appear later on in this series though, so no worries there._**

 ** _Next up is a response to "Soulofnone911", you don't have to worry about that. I do plan to have the Organization be a pretty big deal when they show up, which will be in the sequel, and they will leave the heroes with quite a few surprises, but you'll have to wait and see all the reasons for that when it finally comes out. No spoilers._**

 ** _Iron Man: Not even about how when we do finally meet any members, it'll be at a time when..._**

 ** _AN: DAH! SPOILER! Pull the lever Wasp!_**

 ** _Wasp: [suddenly appears next to two levers and pulls the one on the left]_**

 ** _AN: [has a large ceramic pot drops down on top of him, thankfully with the opening being face down so that he's inside of the pot] (sighs) Other lever maybe._**

 ** _Wasp: Sorry. [pulls the other lever]_**

 ** _Iron Man: [trying to sneak away] Okay, maybe if I just get to a point where I fly away without breaking the ceiling or any other walls of the place, I can avoid...[suddenly gets swarmed by a massive flock of Harry Potter owls that are all constantly pecking at him while constantly hooting] AW COME ON!_**

 ** _AN: [somehow manages to get the pot off of him] Phew, that was close. Anyways, to the guest reviewer "Johnathen", at the moment, the only thing Fox related that I plan on using, would be the anything involving the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, which are both already part of Marvel, so I wouldn't expect anything from that to show up here any time soon, or in my other series._**

 ** _Next up is a few comments/answers to "Dragon Rider 66". For starters, I'd just like to clarify that in this series, Tidus's dad is actually from Destiny Islands, but you are correct in assuming that Sora's father is not. Sorry if anything gave you a different idea about that, and as for your request that I try to summarize the original events of Final Fantasy X, I will do my best to go into detail about what changed in comparison to this story, likely when it comes up at the end of each chapter, like I will for this one since we see quite a few of the major changes here, but if you'd like for me to do a full summary after we conclude the Spira arc, I will be happy to do so. I mean, that point's likely going to come by next chapter anyways, so it's not like it'd be a big deal._**

 ** _Rolling it on over to "UNKNOWN" and the question said guest reviewer posted, I actually do have a few ideas on how Transformers would appear in Kingdom Hearts, but if you mean like a full-blown story and not a chapter that's in a preexisting story, no, I have not thought about that. I will go ahead and confirm now that I do intend for the world of Transformers to show up in both of my current Kingdom Hearts Series though, so have a little fun drawing up ideas on how that will play out, everyone._**

 ** _"GuestWithIdeas", I will go ahead and confirm now that Gwen's father did NOT give her that bruise. Like I'd ever make Captain Stacy into that kind of parent. The man's too good to ever be like that, but you're right, you probably won't like it when you find out the full story. Thankfully, the resolution to it may definitely be much more to your liking, given how certain events will take place during the lead-up to that resolution. And I will admit, I do have it in my head that Night Hunter is getting at least some training from the villains, but not that much. He's already a good swordsman, but when it comes to things like magic and controlling the Heartless, he would need someone to guide him on that. Aside from that, I don't really see him getting much else._**

 ** _"Bellatrix Lestrange-TheDarkOne", it's the questionable part that has me concerned. :)_**

 ** _"Dracus6", I am doing my best to get to my other stories as soon as possible, as one could see by how I did at least post a sneak preview for the next chapter of Code Avengers: Cosmic, but right now, most of my focus does center on anything I have that's Kingdom Hearts related. As for your suggestion, while I will admit that I did recently binge watch what is currently the entirety of the RWBY series (and liked it, just to be clear, because I wouldn't have done so if I didn't), I do not plan on starting any new stories at this time, unless they are an idea that I've had in my head for a long time now. Though part of me has considered adding in a chapter to one of my two Kingdom Hearts series where the heroes visit Remnant for a short time to team up with Ruby and her team._**

 ** _Spider-Man: I feel like you saying that is going to get a lot of attention, and maybe a bunch of reviews that have nothing to do with this story or any of your other ones._**

 ** _AN: Hey, it's not like I was going to keep quiet about that. I just want people to keep in mind that it's still just an idea for the moment. I'm not committed to it just yet, so no one should go getting their hopes up for now._**

 ** _Oh, and "Keeper of Worlds", let me just go ahead and say now that we will see the entirety of the Gullwings in the next story of this series, no worries there._**

 ** _Now then, I think that covers everything I wanted to discuss, so let's return to the adventure on Spira. Avengers, to the chapter!..._**

 ** _I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter XI**

While the gang of heroes from Spira and Earth were all very excited at the official start of their team-up, all good feelings seemed to dwindle when they arrived in Guadosalam. That was not to say that the underground home of the Guado made anyone feel depressed or anything like that, but there was a feeling in the air that made a few of them quite anxious. No one could say for sure just what it was about the place that had them on edge, though; there was just something here in Guadosalam that did not feel right, or even welcoming to them. When Tromell Guado suddenly approached the group and stated that they were invited to Seymour's home for some unknown reason, their concerns only seemed to grow, and it did not help when both Peter and Sora said that they could feel something off about the place when they entered the rather lavish mansion that almost seemed to be built into the base of a tree. While some members of the group were a little more worried upon hearing that Peter was getting a bad vibe from the place, knowing that it was likely because of his Spider-Sense, the Avengers all remembered the last time that Sora had sensed something was wrong, so they were definitely more on guard than anyone else at the moment.

Of course, not all of them were able to keep their cool as they waited for Seymour to appear before them, but it was understandable in Miles and Gwen's cases since they were not used to this kind of thing. After they heard Peter admit that something about this place was making his Spider-Sense give off a faint tingle, they both tensed to the point where you would think that they would jump at the slightest sound, but thankfully, there were more than a few things to keep them distracted. One such instance was when Miles was studying some of the pictures that lined the walls of the foyer in the Guado leader's home.

"Hey, how come most of the Guado look so much alike, aside from Seymour, anyway," Miles asked, having taken notice of the fact before, but not really thinking to ask until now.

"Yeah, I was kinda wondering that myself," Tidus admitted.

"I suppose most of you wouldn't know, being from another world," Lulu stated, gazing at one of the pictures that lined the walls as she did. "Maester Jyscal, the leader of the Guado before Seymour and Seymour's father, wed a human woman."

"So Seymour looks…like he does because he's part human," Sora asked. He had hesitated for a minute because he was not sure whether or not it would be offensive to say that Seymour looked human.

"Yes, that is the case," Lulu confirmed.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that he wasn't too popular after that, was he," Hawkeye questioned.

"That would be an accurate assumption," Auron confirmed before Lula could say anything. "Though he's still considered to be a great man for bringing the teachings of Yevon to the Guado."

While the history lesson was interesting, some of the group could not help but feel like Auron was not being entirely sincere with his words. It almost seemed like he had something against Yevon, but before they could ask if that was the case, they had already moved on from the topic. In fact, it was shortly after that conversation that they were all brought into the dining hall, and Rikku and Sora were both quick to start sampling the rather lavish spread of food. The rest of them were a bit more hesitant to do so, but the Avengers and their friends from their world all knew that they were going to need to eat in order to keep their strength up, so they cautiously had a few bites as well. Not everyone was so eager to indulge in the Guado maester's hospitality though, as the Spirans were all trying to puzzle out just why Seymour had invited them here. When asked why that was the case, Lulu explained that summoners normally don't stop in Guadosalam for long in their journey, mainly because there was no temple in the Guado home. Just a way to enter the Farplane, a place that the people of Spira considered to be where those who have died pass on to after they have been sent. Hearing that did make them wonder why Seymour had sent someone out to greet them when they arrived, but no one missed how nervous and fidgety Yuna was as she tried to figure out that very same thing, especially in the case of Tidus.

"Kimahri not like Maester Seymour," the Ronso of their group finally growled, startling Yuna a little.

"Ah! Shhh," the summoner hushed.

"No, I'm with him on that," Clint admitted, ignoring Yuna and Sora when they both shushed him afterwards. "I don't need some freaky sixth sense like Spider-Boy over there to get a bad vibe from the guy when we saw him earlier."

"Spider- _Man_ ," Peter corrected, only to be ignored by the archer.

"It just seems a little too coincidental that we ran into him just seconds after we arrived on this world, and now, not long after that same moment when we've arrived on his doorstep, we're suddenly being invited for dinner? Something about all of this feels wrong," Clint continued on.

"Should we take that to be a warning from your warrior's instinct," Auron asked.

"I don't know about a warrior's instinct, but when you've lived the life I've led up until now, you do learn how to trust what your gut is telling you," Clint admitted.

"Perhaps Agent Barton's gut feeling is not too far off. I had also felt a similar sense of unease when we met Seymour before, but I had thought that it was merely due to the fact that we were unfamiliar with the people here. Being in his home now, though, I am getting something similar to that same feeling," T'Challa admitted.

"And then there's the fact that both Sora and Peter can sense that something is off in this place, or with the people here," Steve pointed out.

"Hey! Shush! I know that you guys don't think there's a problem with using my real name, but could you please just call me Spider-Man while I'm in this suit? I have a secret identity for a reason, you know," Peter quickly hushed after the captain had spoken.

"Or at the very least, keep quiet about other worlds. Most people are not supposed to know about them," Sora pointed out.

"It's a little late for that in the case of Spira, given that we have been visited by people from other worlds in the past, such as Jecht and a few Keyblade wielders as well," Auron reminded the Keyblade Samurai.

Sora could only shrug in response to that, having momentarily forgotten that detail. At that moment, Seymour finally stepped into the room, and while Peter's trusted sixth sense began tingling a little more, Sora was suddenly overcome with an uneasy feeling that was similar to the ones he had whenever Heartless were around, and when Enchantress had tried to control the Hulk, so both boys were starting to tense up a bit at the sight of the Guado, even as he tried to put up a friendly visage. "Welcome," Seymour greeted.

"You wanted to see me," Yuna asked, being the main reason why the group was invited in the first place.

"Please, make yourselves at home. There's no rush," Seymour insisted, apparently thinking that there was time for some small talk before they got down to business.

"I have to disagree with that," Sora argued. "We've got an important mission to carry out, after all, and for everyone's sake, we probably should be hurrying."

Upon hearing the Islander's voice, Seymour turned and his face seemed to darken a bit before he quickly made the effort to lighten it up again as he spoke to Sora. "Oh, I remember you. The young man with the Keyblade who saved my life," Seymour recalled as he gave Sora a quick bow in recognition. "It was truly a surprise to have been among one of the first to see another Keybearer had graced our world with his presence, but I must admit, I was not expecting said wielder to be so young."

"Um, you do remember that he wasn't alone, right," Clint pointed out, bringing all attention to the rest of his group.

"Yes, of course," Seymour nodded as he looked over the Avengers and their young friends, though his gaze did pause when it fell onto Spider-Man. He quickly brushed it off though, before he carried on, "Now that I think about it, I don't believe I ever learned any of your names back then, but I suppose that the circumstances at the time did prevent us from being properly acquainted."

Sora shared a brief look with the others, wondering just how much he should say to the man, and in return, he received looks of caution that made it clear he should be very careful with what he said. Upon nodding in return to them, Sora looked Seymour in the eye and replied, "My name is Sora, but many people have come to call me the Keyblade Samurai of the Avengers."

"Hmm, a very powerful title to be certain," Seymour nodded in approval, probably thinking that Sora should be flattered by such a thing. In truth though, the uneasy feeling Sora felt in the pit of his stomach only grew at having any kind of approval from this man.

Before he could say anything though, Steve stepped forward and said, "I'm called Captain America, and these are our comrades, Hawkeye, Black Panther, and Spider-Man, and two of Sora's friends, Gwen and Miles."

Seymour nodded to each individual in turn, and was about to say something more when Auron stepped in and said, "Can we please get to the point of why you invited us here? As the young Keyblade master stated, we are in a rush."

"Yes, forgive me," Seymour bowed in apology. "It has been a long time since I had guests. Lady Yuna, this way."

Yuna hesitated for a minute, but eventually did step forward, and when she did, the room suddenly lit up and appeared to change all around them. As the changes took place, they were all amazed to see a brilliant night sky filled with stars passing by them while the image of a bustling city began to take shape, all while Seymour spoke, as though he were narrating a story. "This sphere is a reconstruction created from the thoughts of the dead that wander the Farplane," the Guado maester explained as the images transitioned into the city where people were busily going about their day. "What you are seeing is the city of Zanarkand, as it looked one thousand years ago."

Without anyone taking too much notice, Gwen slowly edged her way over to Lulu and asked, "What's so important about this Zanarkand place that he would show us how it looked a thousand years ago like this?"

"Zanarkand is the final destination in a summoner's pilgrimage. It was once a powerful, machina city, but now, it is considered to be a holy place for where summoners obtain the Final Aeon," Lulu replied, though from the distant sound of her voice, she was just as in awe of this display as the rest of them were.

"The great and wondrous machina city, Zanarkand," Seymour continued, apparently never noticing the interruption. "She once lived in this metropolis."

"She? She, who," Miles questioned, never noticing how Auron seemed to huff at Seymour's remark.

Barely more than a few seconds after Miles had asked his question, the images had changed again to show the bedroom of a very beautiful woman, and while the folks from Earth and Destiny Islands had no idea who she was, the woman sitting on the bed was easily identifiable for everyone that was native to Spira. "Lady Yunalesca," Yuna exclaimed in excitement.

"She was the first person to defeat Sin and save the world from its ravages," Seymour explained, preempting the questions that the folks from other worlds were about to ask without knowing it, despite the fact that he was mainly addressing Yuna. "And you have inherited her name."

"Does that mean that…this Yunalesca person is Yuna's ancestor or something," Sora asked.

"Not as far as I know," Yuna admitted. "It was my father who named me, though I don't really know why."

"Lord Braska was entrusting you with a great task," Seymour offered in explanation. "He wanted you to face Sin, as Lady Yunalesca did. However, Lady Yunalesca did not save the world alone. To defeat the undefeatable Sin, it took an unbreakable bond of love, of the kind that binds two hearts for eternity."

It was at that point that another person entered the room, though they could all tell that he was part of the illusion, even before he had passed through Yuna. A moment later, they all found themselves feeling a bit uncomfortable as they watched the armored man and Yunalesca hold each other close in a way that only lovers could. Sure, it was a replica of events that had taken place a thousand years ago, but that did not mean that anyone felt any less awkward for basically intruding upon what seemed to be a very intimate moment. Thankfully, their unease at watching this came to an end soon enough as the movie came to an end, but when they all looked over at Seymour and Yuna, it looked as though the young summoner was not quite at the point of calm yet.

They all watched carefully as Yuna started to pace around the room before rushing over to the nearest table and gulping down the first cold drink she could get her hands on as fast as humanly possible. Seeing that made them all a little more concerned, in some cases more than others given how Tidus and Rikku were quick to rush to her side in concern. When they did reach her though, they were a little surprised at the look on Yuna's face, among other details that Rikku was quick to point out. "Wow, your face is beat red," the blonde girl noted.

"You okay," Tidus asked, thinking that the things they just saw had left her a bit more uneasy than the rest of them.

Yuna could barely string more than two words together in reply, clearly still flustered by whatever it was that they all assumed Seymour had said or done, and that prompted Gwen to step up and offer some advice. "Easy, just take a few slow, deep breaths and calm down," Gwen coached.

Following the blonde girl's advice, Yuna did manage to eventually settle her nerves a bit, before she finally informed them of the reason why she was so out of sorts, though not without a stutter in her voice. "He…He asked me to marry him," Yuna revealed.

"You serious," Tidus and Sora both gasped in disbelief, while the others were all either quietly gaping in shock or throwing looks in Seymour's direction that were anything but pleasant.

"You know what Yuna must do," Auron coldly told Seymour.

"Of course," Seymour confirmed. "Lady Yuna…No, all summoners are charged with bringing peace to Spira, but this means more than just defeating Sin. She must ease the suffering of all Spira. She must be a leader for the people. I proposed to Lady Yuna as a maester of Yevon."

"So this is just some political thing," Captain America accused, clearly more upset by the idea than his calm voice indicated.

"Or more accurately, you really think that marrying a girl who is most definitely a lot younger than you, and is more than likely too young to be making that kind of commitment is supposed to help her keep people happy or something," Clint questioned.

"This world is not a playhouse in which you can just do as you like," T'Challa stated. "Such a diversion may amuse an audience, but it would change nothing."

"Even so, the actors must play their parts," Seymour countered. He then seemed to finally take notice of how anxious his proposal had made Yuna and stated, "There's no need to answer right away. Please, think it over."

"And what if she doesn't even want to get married? Did you even think of that," Sora questioned. "You can't just spring something like that on someone from out of nowhere. You should at least get to know them well enough first to see if they want to go that far in a relationship with you."

"I did not mean to suggest otherwise, and that is why I said there's no need to answer right away," Seymour reassured him. He then studied Sora for a minute before asking, "Though I am curious as to what you would do if this issue were forced, Master Sora. Did your predecessors not teach you that one shouldn't meddle in the affairs of other worlds too greatly? Then again, considering the things that Master Aqua, Terra, and Ventus got involved in when they were here, I suppose it is no surprise that you would involve yourself so heavily as well."

The minute he heard that last statement, the slight stinging in his head from earlier suddenly returned with the force of a sledgehammer, and Sora immediately let out a small cry of pain as he brought a hand to his head and dropped down to one knee, surprising everyone when he did. He could barely make out the other Avengers shouting his name in concern, Tidus and Wakka's attempts to get an answer from him on whether or not he was okay, or even Peter's encouragement to say just about anything, as the pain in his head eventually became too much for him to really think straight, while a bright light flashed before his eyes, and his mind was suddenly showing him another vision from so long ago.

* * *

 _Terra was not sure how long he had been unconscious. One minute he had been fighting off hordes of Unversed, the next thing he knew, one had got him from behind and he was waking up to the sounds of someone talking close by, and from the look of his surroundings, it seemed that he was currently inside of a prison cell. There was little doubt in Terra's mind that someone had mistaken him to be some kind of criminal, and he fully intended to call out for someone that he could explain that to, when one of the voices he had heard earlier suddenly let out a cry of fright. Looking out of the cell door, he immediately spotted several of the wretched creatures he had been tracking through the worlds for a while now racing up and down the halls, while several guards tried with little success to either destroy or drive them back. No longer having any time to waste, Terra sprang from the cot he was resting on, summoned out his Keyblade, and used it to open the door so that he could join the fight._

 _After eliminating the Unversed in the room, the young man quickly raced out to where he first heard the cries for help coming from, and soon found three men surrounded by several Floods, Scrappers, and a few Archravens. A few quick blasts of Fira easily took out the aerial foes, and that left the young Keyblade wielder free to cut down the Floods and Scrappers with several powerful slashes of his weapon, finishing off the last of them with one of his most powerful moves, Zantetsuken. Breathing a sigh of relief, the young wielder soon dismissed his Keyblade before turning his attention to the three he had just rescued from the dangerous creatures. "Are you all okay," Terra asked._

 _"Yes, thanks to you, young man," the most regally dressed of the three nodded in reply before giving an elaborate bow of thanks to him._

 _"Glad to hear it," Terra nodded in return. "But you should probably wait here while I deal with any others that might be outside."_

 _"Yeah, like that's gonna happen," scoffed a man who was dressed in a manner that would make one think he was a real wild type._

 _"I beg to differ, Jecht. If it means keeping Lord Braska safe, we should heed the Keyblade wielder's advice and let him handle those things, considering that our own weapons had little to no effect on them," the man in red robes with a katana blade insisted, but his words still made Terra pause for a minute in his departure._

 _"Wait. You know about the Keyblade," Terra questioned, his guard quickly going up at the memory of the last few people he met that knew of the mystical weapon._

 _Apparently, the one called Braska found Terra's concern to be a little humorous, as he chuckled and said, "There's no need to be concerned, my friend. The people of Spira have all known of the Keyblade for some time, now. Though I must admit, it has been quite a long time since so much as one wielder has appeared on this world, let alone one as young as yourself. To be honest, any who wield the Keyblade would likely be considered just as important as a normal summoner."_

 _"I see," Terra nodded, feeling much more relieved at hearing this. The last thing he needed and wanted was to have to fight someone else who had learned about the Keyblade. He then turned his mind back to his previous task and said, "Well then, pardon my rudeness, Lord Summoner, but I really should be going if I'm to stop those creatures. You should wait at least three minutes after I leave before departing as well."_

 _"Wait, are you seriously just going to take off just like that," the one called Jecht asked. When Terra turned to give him a confused look, Jecht elaborated, "I mean, you just saved the life of someone who may as well be nobility, and you're going walk away without asking for anything in return."_

 _"Jecht," the swordsman admonished._

 _"It's all right, Auron," Braska calmed. "He does make a fair point, and I would like to thank you in some way."_

 _"That's not necessary your lordship," Terra tried to wave off, but apparently, Braska was not going to hear of it._

 _"No really, I do insist on trying to find some way to thank you," Braska stated. His eyes seemed to light up with an idea as he stated, "Perhaps you could join us on our journey, and allow us to show you more of Spira."_

 _"Oh, I wouldn't want to impose," Terra tried to say. "Besides, I have an important task that I need to take care of. Those creatures, the Unversed, their being directed by a dangerous individual named Vanitas. I tracked him to this world, but he managed to slip away after unleashing a large number of his Unversed on me. I'm not entirely sure why he's here, or what his endgame may be, but I do know that it can't be anything good, so I have to find and stop him before it's too late."_

 _"Well then, I suppose that may be all the more reason for you to join us," Braska said. When Terra just looked at him, obviously wondering if anything he said had registered with the summoner, Braska explained, "You can't just go roaming about this world when you don't know your way around, or what place you can or can't get into without special conditions, so why not travel with us. You wouldn't be a guardian like Auron and Jecht, but having a Keyblade wielder like yourself to aid us in our journey would be a great benefit, especially if we were to encounter anymore of these Unversed, or this Vanitas fellow you mentioned."_

 _Terra placed a hand to his chin in thought for a few minutes, pondering the summoner's words in his head, before he finally had to admit that Braska did make a good point, and from the looks of things, it did seem like most of the dark creatures were focused on Braska and his group, so there was no reason to think that more would not come for these three. Considering all of that and other factors for a few more minutes, Terra finally conceded, "All right, you've convinced me, but just remember to be careful if we encounter the Unversed, and if we run into Vanitas himself, stay back and leave him to me."_

 _"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, kid," Jecht huffed. "Let's just get going already. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can try to find a way back home to my wife and kid."_

 _At Terra's confused look, Auron explained, "Jecht here insists that he's from another world as well, like you, but he has no way of proving it or explaining how he got here."_

 _"Hey, if I knew, I'd tell you, but I don't. I just know that I need to get back to Destiny Islands before my family gets too worried. The kid's probably crying his eyes out over something already," Jecht retorted._

 _As the two commenced with further bickering, Terra started wondering if he should break this up, before Braska just laughed again and said, "I'd say that this is going to be quite the interesting pilgrimage, wouldn't you agree?"_

 _Terra only smiled in reply, not really sure what else he could say at this point. Though a small part of him did find a sort of familiarity watching these three, as they reminded him a little of how he and his two best friends could be at times._

* * *

 _Another fast slash through a Bruiser put an end to the Unversed group that was threatening the small island of Besaid, but the young blonde was not going to let his guard down that quickly. At least not until Braska came over to placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder in thanks for aiding his group in fighting off the creatures that were being directed by the masked boy he had been chasing for so long. "Very nicely done, Ven. It seems you're just as skilled as your friend, Terra," Braska complimented._

 _"I don't know about that," Ven replied as he dismissed his Keyblade and placed both arms behind his head in a relaxed pose. "Terra's had a lot more training than me, and is a lot stronger."_

 _"Maybe, but from what I saw, you're way faster than that overgrown rock you call a friend," Jecht stated. "Bet you'd be one hell of a Blitzer too. You ever think of trying out the sport?"_

 _Before Ventus could reply, Auron came over and said, "Don't go thinking you can just draft him onto some team or something. He can't stay for long, you know."_

 _"Hey, hey, who said anything about drafting? I'm just asking if he's ever thought about playing Blitzball before," Jecht insisted._

 _"Uh-huh," Auron nodded, not quite believing that, while Ven could only smile at the back-and-forth between the two._

 _"Well, we'd best make our way to the temple since the way is cleared now," Braska stated as he began to move towards the village. "Ven, won't you join us? I'm sure that you might find passing through the Cloister of Trials a very interesting experience."_

 _Ventus paused to think it over for a minute before he finally shrugged and said, "Sure, why not? From what you guys told me, Terra got to see it at least once or twice, so it would be pretty cool to see it for myself."_

 _The other three all nodded to the blonde before heading towards the village below. Upon reaching said village, Jecht could only think of one thing to say after looking around for a few seconds. "Smallest heap of huts I ever seen! And that's saying something, considering where I'm from."_

 _"You mean the Destiny Islands, right," Ven asked, earning a nod in return. "You know, I'd like to visit that world someday. My friend, Aqua told me that there's a special fruit there that represents an unbreakable connection."_

 _"'A special fruit?' You talkin' about the paopu fruit, kid," Jecht asked._

 _"Um…I guess so," Ventus shrugged in reply._

 _"Ah, that old legend's been around for ages, but I've never really seen anything to prove it," Jecht waved off as he and Ven started further into the village. "Most of the women get all hung up on how romantic it sounds, even to the point where some of them insist on sharing one with their husbands on their wedding days, or whatever, even if they had already shared one with the guy before."_

 _"Why's that," Ven asked._

 _"Apparently, when two people share a paopu fruit, their destinies become intertwined, and they'll remain a part of each other's lives forever. Or so the legends say," Jecht explained._

 _"Well, I can certainly see the appeal there. Now I suddenly wish I had been given the chance to share one with my wife before she had passed," Braska stated. He then took another look around the village before he said, "That being said, this definitely looks like a fine place to live, especially if it's that similar to your home, Jecht."_

 _"Yeah, I guess you have a point," Jecht admitted._

 _"Hey, maybe you could move here with your daughter after you beat that Sin monster," Ventus eagerly suggested._

 _Braska could only laugh at the blonde's excitement before he admitted, "You know, I was just thinking something almost exactly like that."_

 _Ven grinned upon hearing that, and then raced up to the temple with Jecht, not noticing until a moment later that Auron and Braska had hung back for some reason. "What're you guys doin'? Let's go," Jecht prompted. "I'm so hungry I could eat a shoopuf whole!"_

 _"Oh, don't mention food right now," Ventus practically begged as he rubbed his stomach. "I'm so hungry I could probably eat two shoopufs whole."_

 _"Sorry," Braska chuckled. "Well, let's go then."_

 _Auron just let out a single huff of amusement while he muttered under his breath, "That boy may not be the same age as his friend, and lack the same refinement as a warrior, but he is definitely a brighter ray of sunshine than Terra seemed to be."_

* * *

 _After defeating several fiends and Unversed while traversing the Macalania Woods, and then arriving at the trading post that was just before the Macalania Temple, Jecht had suggested that the group all take a picture, and while their blue haired friend had attempted to get out of it, somehow, Aqua had still ended up being roped into the fun along with the other two men. Of course, part of it was because of how Auron had insisted that if he had to get in the picture, than she did too, but to be quite honest, Aqua did find it a little funny to see how camera shy the swordsman was acting. Of course, the problem with getting said picture was that there was no one around to help make sure there was one of all four of them, but no one seemed to mind that much, and Braska had insisted that he be the one to take the first few pictures, saying that he wanted everyone to be able to remember both his guardians and the first true Keyblade master to visit Spira just as much as he would be remembered if and when he defeated Sin. That did not make getting the photo any easier though._

 _"Auron, could you stand closer to the other two," Braska requested, seeing that Auron was too far from the others for the camera to properly get everyone in the shot. After the swordsman in question had moved over, Braska immediately smiled in thanks before checking the camera. "Aqua, perhaps you could move up some? I can barely see you back there."_

 _"I'm surprised you can see her at all. With that outfit of hers, she practically blends into all the snow," Jecht teased._

 _"Hey, that's so not true, or are you just trying to say that you think my clothes are horrible," Aqua retorted, though from the look on her face, she was clearly just pretending to be offended to see how Jecht would react._

 _"What? No! I wasn't saying anything like that at all," Jecht rapidly replied, clearly a little freaked out at the idea of what the Keyblade master would do to him if he really had offended her. He did not miss how Auron was laughing at him though, and he quickly snapped, "Hey, I wouldn't laugh if I were you. Don't act like you didn't see how she tore through some of those larger fiends and Unversed a little while back."_

 _"I'm not. I just find it amusing that the mighty Jecht Stone can be so easily bested at the idea of a woman so much as injuring him," Auron teased._

 _"Well she ain't just any woman, you know. She's a Keyblade wielder, like those other two guys, only better since she's a master," Jecht argued._

 _Aqua just laughed at the two's argument as she moved up a little more, and it seemed like neither of the other two really noticed when Braska thanked her for doing so, saying that it was now perfect. He did manage to get them to stop bickering long enough for them to properly pose for the picture, and Braska made it a point to take more than one photo just to be on the safe side. He did not want to find out later on that someone had blinked and ended up looking like their eyes were closed in the picture when it was too late. "Hey, Braska, you really should take one too," Jecht insisted. "It'd make a great gift for little Yuna."_

 _"I suppose," Braska nodded, though still hesitant to do so._

 _"Lord Braska, we shouldn't be wasting our time like this," Auron tried to argue, but he was soon interrupted._

 _"Hey, as long as you're making good memories with friends, then you're not wasting time," Aqua disputed as she approached the summoner. "Here, just let me take a few pictures of you three together so that you can have something to show your daughter after you've completed your pilgrimage. I'm sure she'd love it."_

 _"Of course. Thank you, Aqua," Braska nodded, and he then handed over the sphere they were using to take pictures before taking her place between the two guardians._

 _Aqua happily took a good number of pictures, even a few while the three men were not really paying attention, thinking that they would like to have some photos that were not just them posing for the camera, so when she returned the sphere, she was confident that Braska would have a good selection of pictures to give his daughter when he finally came home from his journey. It was pretty surprising running into these three after she had landed in Macalania Woods a few hours ago, but it was even more surprising to find out that they had run into her friends a short while earlier. She was not surprised to learn that Terra and Ven had helped them out on their journey, but she did wish that they had stuck around a little longer so that they could have met up again. Still, she understood the importance of the tasks that they were undertaking, so she could only hope that she would be able to catch up with them again at the next opportunity._

 _She was eventually brought out of her thoughts on the matter when she noticed that Braska seemed to be making a video on the sphere, and she could have sworn that she heard him mention his daughter's name once or twice. Judging by everything else she overheard, it did not sound like the type of video that one would make just for laughs, and that made Aqua a little worried about the summoner. She waited a few more moments before she finally approached him and asked, "Is everything all right, sir?"_

 _"Oh! Yes, of course it is. Thank you for your concern, Aqua," Braska quickly insisted, obviously trying to hide something. He then slowly approached Aqua and added, "But if you wouldn't mind…make sure that this sphere will end up with Auron or Yuna at some point before you leave our world. It would mean a great deal to me."_

 _Aqua was silent for a moment, not really sure what to think, but in the end, she accepted the sphere in question, noticing that it was different from the one that they had been taking pictures with earlier, and then pocketed it as she stated, "I'll do what I can to make sure that happens, Lord Braska."_

 _"Thank you, Master Aqua," Braska nodded, and like that, everything seemed to go white._

* * *

When Sora awoke with a start, jolting upright in the bed he was resting in when he did right when this most recent vision had finally come to its conclusion. It was not until he had regained his breath and registered that his headache was gone that he finally took note of the problem with the scenario he was currently in; namely, the fact that he did not remember being so much as near a bed before he passed out. He also did not remember being in such a small room beforehand either, but thankfully, he was not alone in said room, as the bubbly blonde who he had startled with his sudden awakening proved.

"Well, good morning to you too, sleepyhead," Rikku playfully teased, announcing her presence to Sora in full.

"Huh…Oh, uh…m-morning," Sora stuttered, finally remembering the other details of what had happened before his most recent vision. There was no way his friends were not going to want answers from him about that matter after that episode, but with that in mind, Sora had to wonder why Rikku was the only one here at the moment. "Hey, where are the others?"

"They went to the Farplane," Rikku replied, but she quickly regretted saying that when she saw the look of panic on Sora's face. "No, no, no! Not like that! There's a way for people to go into the Farplane here in Guadosalam without dying, and they went there because Yunie wanted to try and talk to her parents in an attempt to figure out what to do regarding Seymour's proposal."

"Oh…Okay, that's…That's good to hear," Sora breathed in relief, glad to hear that it was not what he had first assumed when he heard Rikku say that his friends had all gone to the Farplane, but it did still leave him a little curious. "How come you didn't go with them, Ri?"

"Well…let's just say that my family has a saying: memories are nice, but that's all they are, and it's better to keep them inside where they should be," Rikku explained as simply as she could.

Sora nodded in reply, not quite understanding it entirely, but getting just enough to grasp a general idea of what she meant by that. With nothing else to be said, he then quickly stood up and proceeded to head out, and said, "I'm gonna go and meet up with everyone else, then."

"Hold on! Are you sure you're up for it," Rikku asked, thinking it would be bad for Sora to rush things if there was a chance he could collapse again.

"I'll be fine, really," Sora reassured her.

Seeing the boy so certain of his wellbeing at the moment, Rikku just sighed and proceeded to lead him out to where the others were, knowing that he was likely going to get lost if left to try and find them on his own. Not that it was going to take too long to get to the entrance to the Farplane though, considering that the inn that they had brought Sora to was practically right next to it, but she still felt that it was better safe than sorry. They were a little surprised to find Auron waiting outside for everyone else, but paid it little mind as Sora parted ways from Rikku and ascended the stairs that led up to the entrance. Just when he was about to pass through the portal, a very familiar voice that he had not heard in ages reached his ears.

"You know, there's something about this place," commented the voice of a certain auburn haired girl, and when Sora spun around to face the speaker, he could have sworn that his heart skipped at least two or three beats upon seeing that it was in fact her. There, walking along the small path to the Farplane entrance, in the exact same outfit she had been wearing when he last saw her, with her auburn hair gently waving in the slight breeze that blew through the room while her violet-blue eyes shined like stars, was none other than Kairi. Why Auron and Rikku had not seemed to have noticed her appearance, Sora did not know or really care. All he knew was that Kairi was here before him. He wanted to say something to her, tell her how happy he was to see her again after so long, let her know how worried he had been, but for some reason, his voice had chosen to leave him in that moment. Apparently, the auburn haired noticed this, and decided to elaborate on what she had been saying before. "It reminds me of the secret place, where we used to scribble on the walls. Remember?"

Seeing that lovely, fond smile on Kairi's face seemed to be the kick-start that Sora needed, because he finally managed to start forming words again, if only barely. Though it was not to admit that he did not need a reminder of the secret place; he had just been there not too long ago, even if it did feel like a lifetime had passed since that day. No, all he really wanted was to let her know how happy he was to see her. "Kairi…" Sora called out while reaching his hand towards her.

Apparently, hearing him call out her name was enough to make Kairi smile a little more before she held out her hand to him, obviously more than eager to take it. Sora could only grin a little more at seeing that, even though he felt that it was silly to be getting so worked up before their hands had even touched one another, but the moment was soon killed when he heard someone calling out to him from behind. "Hey Sora, glad to see you up and about again," Clint shouted, making Sora jump a little in surprise before turning to see said archer and the rest of their friends coming over to him. He was only starting to wonder why no one had seemed to take notice of the girl who was standing in front of him, but he quickly stopped short when he turned back and saw that Kairi was gone; vanished, like she had never even been there. That mere fact alone made Sora start to look everywhere that he could in an attempt to locate the redhead, even though there was literally nowhere she could have disappeared to without anyone noticing, and that seemed to get his friends a little more worried. "You okay, Sora," Clint asked once he got over to the young Keybearer and took note of his surprised, slightly desperate visage. "You almost look as though you've seen a ghost."

"I didn't see a ghost," Sora insisted. "I saw Kairi! She was here just now!"

"What're you talking about," Clint asked. "The only ones that were here with you were Ri and Auron."

"No, I'm telling you, it was her. Kairi was here, right in front of me, and even spoke to me for a minute," Sora insisted. He then looked to the other two that had been out here with him, and practically ordered them, "Ri, Auron, tell them! You had to have noticed her, right?"

Rikku and Auron just looked at one another in uncertainty before the swordsman of the two finally stated, "The only people I saw coming up this way since the others went into the Farplane were you and Rikku, Sora. There wasn't anyone else."

"Yeah, I never noticed anyone coming in, either, and it's a little hard to not see someone coming given that there's only two ways in and out of this place," Rikku added.

Seeing that he was not getting any help there, Sora turned to his fellow islanders and asked, "You saw her, didn't you Wakka? Tidus?"

While they did so with a little more hesitance, Tidus and Wakka still repeated the exact same exchange that Rikku and Auron just had before the blonde boy finally said, "Sora, when we came out, you were just staring off into space with your hand out. There wasn't anyone there as far as I could tell."

"If Kairi was there, I'm pretty sure we woulda noticed, ya," Wakka added with a sad shake of his head.

"But…She was there…I know she was…" Sora continued to argue, but given how his voice dropped down a few notches in volume as he spoke, it was not too much of a stretch for the others to realize that Sora was beginning to question it as well.

"Maybe we should get you back into bed, Sora," Cap suggested. "If you're seeing things, then it's probably better that you rest up for a bit."

"I'm fine, and I'm telling you, she was here. I'm sure that I didn't imagine it," Sora tried to insist. "This wasn't like one of my visions. She was definitely here, talking to me as she looked around at this place and every…"

"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on a minute. What visions are you talking about," Peter interrupted, now looking even more concerned for his friend than before.

Sora could only slap his forehead in disbelief, hardly able to believe he had accidentally let that slip, but he figured that it was going to come up anyway after that little episode he had before his most recent vision. He just wished it had not come out like this, but it was out there now, so he was going to have to explain those details in full. He was just opening his mouth to do so when someone suddenly gasped in shock at something that was behind the group that just came from the Farplane.

From where they were standing, it looked like a Guado ghost had just stepped out of the Farplane, and as far as the Spirans were all concerned, that was exactly what had happened, given the name that the Avengers all heard being gasped by several of the surrounding Gaudo. "Lord Jyscal," they heard being whispered over and over again.

"Is that…normal," Peter asked, already tensing up a little in preparation for a possible fight.

"No, it is not," Auron immediately replied. "He does not belong here. Yuna, send him."

"Hang on. What if he came out of there for a reason? Maybe we should ask him why he's here before we do anything," Sora argued.

"If we let him linger in this world for too long, he will likely become a fiend, and that's the last thing that we need to happen in this place," Lulu argued. "Sir Auron is right. Yuna must send him right away."

Yuna nodded in agreement, and the others all stepped back to watch as the young girl began performing a very elaborate dance with her staff. As she spun the staff around while twirling on her feet, the Marvel-topians all could not help but think that the performance they were seeing, while very sad was also quite beautiful in its own way. Maybe it was partly because of the girl who was performing it, or maybe it was because it was the Spiran way of sending the dead on to the next life, but whatever the case, there was a sense of beauty that could not be denied. That was also part of the reason why Sora was the only person to notice when the spirit of Lord Jyscal appeared to have dropped something, aside from Yuna, who had been standing right in front of the deceased Guado while she performed the sending.

Before anyone could question what it was that Yuna had seen Jyscal drop, or even think of asking Sora about his earlier episode, or why he was so insistent that one of his missing friends had been here when she was not, Auron spoke up again, saying, "Talk later. We leave now."

Despite the fact that some of them disagreed with the swordsman, no one could deny that something in Auron's voice said that leaving now was not negotiable, so they just did as he said. All the same, it did not stop anyone from giving Sora worried looks, or Sora himself from glancing over to Yuna in nearly equal concern and confusion, as he was just as curious as Yuna probably was about whatever Lord Jyscal had dropped before she had sent him.

* * *

The group ended up going over various ideas and reasons as to why Jyscal would have come out of the Farplane like he had, but no one was really able to come up with anything solid, other than the idea that he had likely died an unclean death, and was not properly sent afterwards. Then again, the idea that he did have something that he needed to convey before he fully passed on was a likely scenario as well, but Lulu dismissed that when she revealed that even that were the case, those who were sent did not come back, even if they did have some form of unfinished business. The topic did not drop until they had finally exited the chamber to the Farplane and made their way back to Seymour's manor, where Yuna revealed that she intended to give Seymour her answer. As she led the way forward, Sora could not help but notice that Tidus seemed to look pretty happy about the matter and from the glances and smirks that he exchanged with Wakka, the Keyblade Samurai knew that they were both thinking the same thing on what the reason for that could be. Sora's crush on Kairi may have been obvious to everyone who ever saw him around the girl or heard him talk about her, but Tidus was even more transparent when it came to what he thought about the young summoner.

Yuna had to put her answer to Seymour's proposal on hold though, because it turned out that Seymour had left his home to head for Macalania Temple at some point. They all figured that he had not expected an answer so soon, but it was still a little suspicious that Seymour would just up and leave like that without really telling anyone. Either way, they all knew that they would be seeing him again very soon, because that was the next destination on Yuna's pilgrimage, so they quickly set out once more. At least, they would have, but it was a little hard for them to get very far, given how Rikku seemed determined to hang back in Guadosalam for a longer time, and it was not until Clint had ran out of patience and threw her over his shoulder that they finally got her to leave Guadosalam and enter the area known as the Thunder Plains.

Barely more than a few minutes after entering the Thunder Plains, the Midgardians all quickly found out why the place was named as such. The entire area was blanketed in thunderstorms with lightning strikes that hit the ground almost as often as the rain that fell. Thankfully, from what they could see, most of the strikes seemed to hit the massive towers that lined the path forwards, so they made it a point to avoid any large, open areas while sticking as close to the towers as they could. As they moved forward, they could not help but marvel at the impressive feat of engineering that they had not expected of this world that seemed so against most technology, and some of them could not help but wonder just what kind of improvements that Tony would make if he ever found his way to this world, assuming he did not end up getting hit a few times by the lightning due to his armor.

Not everyone was so fascinated by the Thunder Plains, but then again, it was only natural to be at least a little weary of lightning strikes, hence the reason why they were doing their best to not stray too far or too close to the lightning rod towers. Eventually though, they soon discovered that one member of the group was much less fond of this place than anyone else, namely when very girlish shriek followed after a particularly impressive flash of lightning as the bolt hit the nearby tower. "Whoa! That was a close one," Wakka laughed in amazement.

"Stop kidding around," Lulu lightly scolded.

"Yes ma'am," Wakka immediately apologized, earning him strange smirks from some of the other guys. "What?"

The only response he received was when Hawkeye made a slight whipping motion with one hand while making the accompanying sound effect, earning laughs from Tidus and Sora, while Auron and T'Challa both let out amused huffs. The rest of the group did not vocalize their amusement, but you could still see it somewhere on their faces, until a much less amused-sounding laugh reached their ears, making them all turn to the blonde that Clint was still carrying over his shoulder, just to make sure that she would not do anything stupid. When another lightning strike came, the girlish shriek from earlier came again, and this time, they all saw that it came from Rikku. The only thing that was more amusing was that she had freaked out so badly that it actually made Hawkeye drop her a little unceremoniously so that he could quickly draw his bow and an arrow, while several other members of the party drew their own weapons, thinking that she had seen an approaching threat.

"Uh…Everything okay," Clint asked when he saw no signs of any form of bad guy or monster in the area.

"Eh heh heh heh heh heh heh…" was all Rikku could get out in response.

"Ri? What's the matter," Tidus asked, feeling a little weirded out by the way she was laughing.

"Yeah, come on. You're creeping me out, Ri," Sora admitted.

The only answer she could give was to duck her head down as another flash lightning strike split the sky, with a loud boom of thunder following soon after. Barely seconds later, the blonde had crawled over to Miles as fast as she could, and latched onto his leg like it was the only life-line she had to keep her from drowning, much to his shock. "I wanna go home," Rikku whimpered. "I hate lightning! I hate thunder! Can we just rest in the nearby inn, please? Just for a little while?"

Now it made sense as to why she was so hesitant to leave Guadosalam, but that did not make things any easier. Auron had already explained to them earlier that the storms in the Thunder Plains never stopped, so they knew it was better to cross them quickly. However, judging by the fact that Rikku was shaking like a leaf, they could tell that just coming into this place was very hard for her, and it did not look like she was going to be doing too well without taking a break as soon as possible. No one was too eager to stop and rest just yet though, because just about everyone else wanted to get on with their respective missions. They probably would have continued onward regardless of Rikku's fears of lightning and thunder, but sadly, they soon realized that was a bad idea, because the girl constantly whined and begged for them to stop and rest at the inn, and increasingly so the closer they got to said inn.

Eventually, Rikku's whining would have gotten to be too much for everyone, had Steve not started to sympathize with the poor girl a little and said, "It probably would be best for us to rest up for a little while in a safe location. At least if we do so here at the inn, we'll be sure to be at something closer to full strength when it matters most."

"Yeah! Exactly! Please," Rikku immediately begged, glad to hear that at least someone was on her side.

"Fine, we'll rest," Auron irritably sighed. A minute later, he could not help but mutter under his breath, "She's worse than the storm, anyway."

"I'd say that it's more like she's worse than Clint," Sora corrected, having overheard the swordsman.

"Hey," Hawkeye snapped in return.

"He is not wrong, you know," T'Challa informed his friend. "You have been the most vocal out of everyone about the problems we are currently dealing with. If anything, I would say that our young friends are faring better than you."

"Yeah, and that's saying something, considering that two of us are just regular, high school teenagers, while the third one is just a street-level crime-fighter that isn't used to all this crazy Avengers stuff you guys get into," Spidey pointed out.

Clint could not really argue either of these points, but that did not mean he liked it any better, as the begrudging huff he let out while crossing his arms proved. That did seem to at least distract Rikku a little from the storm around them, at least until the next clap of thunder, but thankfully, she seemed to calm down a lot more after they had all gotten into the inn. Panic attacks from long-time phobias aside, stopping to rest at the inn did allow the team to finally get around to a topic that they had been putting off for far too long in a few people's opinion, and they were all determined to get to the bottom of it. That was why, nearly everyone in the group had settled into a comfortable seat while Sora attempted to get into contact with Donald and Goofy, hoping that the two would be able to lend some kind of assistance to them.

"Well, that was a bust," Sora ended up informing the group after he finally pocketed the Kingdom Caller once more. "I couldn't get through to Donald and Goofy, which means that they're either out of range, or they're busy with something else. I did get the voicemail for their Caller though, so I made sure to leave a message. Here's hoping that they get it before things get too crazy for us here."

"You think none of what we've dealt with so far since we landed here is too crazy," Miles questioned, half humorously.

"Maybe on some scale, but there's at least one bit of that craziness that we can get to the bottom of, starting with a simple question," Hawkeye pointed out.

Steve nodded in agreement before they all fixated their gazes on the Keyblade wielder of the group, making Sora shift in place a little out of discomfort. He knew what was likely coming, but hearing the super soldier ask the question only drove the point home for him. "Sora, what happened back in Guadosalam," Steve asked. "One minute you were fine, and then the next, you were screaming in pain before you finally passed out. Do you have any idea why?"

Sora glanced around at everyone in the room, took a deep breath, ignored the small shriek Rikku let out at the sound of another thunderclap, and said, "I'm not sure if you guys would believe me if I told you."

"A great deal has happened recently that many of us would not have believed possible before now. I don't see how anything you say could change that," Lulu pointed out.

Sora could not think of an argument for that, but that did not make him any less nervous about what he was going to reveal. Hence the reason why he said it all as quickly as he could and in one breath, much to some of the group's amazement. "I've been getting visions of the past; namely of Terra, Aqua, and Ventus's adventures from ten years ago. It's completely random, so I have no control over it, but nearly every time it happened now, I've been able to pick up a few new tricks, like how to summon the Keyblade Glider, how to better control my magic, my short-distance teleporting, and even how to use healing magic, but other times its just random stuff, like seeing them hanging out together or just some of the things they did on a specific world that they had each visited at one point. I didn't say anything about it to anyone, because I figured you guys would probably think I was crazy or something, or ask me to try make the visions happen so we could figure out where the three were, or some other thing, and there's also the fact that in some of the visions, it looked like I was seeing them through Ventus's eyes, almost as though I was Ventus when those moments had happened."

The others just looked at Sora in silent disbelief after they heard all of that. Partly because of how he had said all of that in one breath, and partly because they were waiting for Sora to regain said breath once he had finished. When he finally stopped panting, T'Challa asked, "Are you sure that these are visions of the past?"

"Positive," Sora confirmed. "I mean, Fury said that Ventus was hidden away somewhere in a comatose state at the moment, and he was definitely fine in all of the visions I've seen so far. And that's without including the ones I saw from his point of view."

"Why would you be seeing these things through this Ventus person's eyes in the first place? I mean, that seems more than a little weird if you ask me," Tidus questioned.

"Hey, maybe for all we know, Sora was actually Ventus in another life," Hawkeye joked.

"Dude, come on. This isn't _Avatar the Last Airbender_. There's no way that's the case," Spider-Man scoffed in reply, sounding like he had just heard the most ridiculous thing ever.

"Wait, you actually watched that," Hawkeye asked, sounding a little excited when he did.

"Yeah," Spidey confirmed. "I think one of my favorite episodes was when Zuko and Aang went to find the Sun Warriors."

"Nice! Though I kinda preferred the one where we met the Yuyan Archers," Clint admitted.

"Hold on, _you_ watched that show," Miles asked in disbelief.

"Duh! It's a great show," Clint defended. "I mean, _Legend of Korra_ was good, too, but you can't beat the classics, even if seeing how that world got a little more modernized in Korra's time was pretty awesome."

"Right," Peter agreed in excitement before he shared a fist bump with both Clint and Miles.

"Ahem, boys. Can we focus? You can compare notes on your favorite cartoons later," Gwen admonished the two. She then smirked a little as she quietly muttered, "And for the record, Korra was way better than Last Airbender."

"We heard that," all three of the fan-boys chorused to the blonde.

"Sora, about these visions…can you tell us anything that happened in them to help us believe this," T'Challa asked. "Maybe describe the people you saw?"

"Well, in the most recent one, I definitely saw Auron and Tidus's dad a lot, and Yuna's dad too," Sora revealed, turning towards Auron as he continued. "You guys all traveled together with Terra, Ventus, and Aqua at some point during Braska's pilgrimage. You first met Terra at some kind…prison or something similar to that, when you were attacked by monsters that Terra called the Unversed; you first visited Besaid with Ventus; and you all took pictures at some kind of inn on a snow covered mountain with Aqua."

"Many people know that Lord Braska, Jecht, and I were joined by those three at one point or another during Braska's journey," Auron countered. "We never encountered all three at the same time, but it is still pretty common…"

"Mr. Stone asked Ventus if he ever considered playing Blitzball after seeing him action and told you all about the legend of the paopu fruit while you were in Besaid. Terra did not want to join you because he was tracking someone named Vanitas, but Braska talked him into doing so by pointing out that traveling with you would keep him from getting too lost or turned around. You laughed at Mr. Stone when he freaked out at the chance that he might have upset Aqua while you were taking pictures on that mountain. And finally, Ven was the one who suggested to Braska that he and Yuna move to Besaid," Sora interrupted, revealing information that he was sure that only Auron could confirm.

The Keybearer's hunch was right, as Auron was struck silent in disbelief, until Yuna and the others all asked him if that was true, to which he could only give a minute nod in reply. "So you really have been seeing visions of the past," Auron whispered a second later.

"Maybe, but that's still not a guarantee that he's been seeing the Keyblade wielders that Fury mentioned to the Avengers, or the ones that came here," Steve pointed out.

"Only Keybearers to come to Spira before Sora were Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. Not likely to be anyone else," Kimahri revealed.

"All the same, could you describe the three for us, Sora? Maybe a distinguishing feature that they each possessed at the very least," T'Challa asked.

"Sure," Sora nodded. "Um…They all had a piece of armor somewhere on their left arm, usually near their shoulders, but Aqua had an armor piece on her other arm to match it. Ventus looked like he was about a year older than me, and had blonde spiky hair." Sora paused there for a minute when he noticed the odd looks he was getting at that point, and he quickly figured out what they were thinking when he mentioned that detail. "Not as spiky as my hair, but it was still pretty spiky. Let's see…Um…Terra, also had additional armor on his left arm…Aqua had blue hair…Oh! And they all wore the same badge, though Terra's was gold while Aqua and Ventus's wore silver."

"What did the badges look like," Cap prompted.

"Well…it's kinda hard to describe," Sora admitted as he thought it over in his head. He glanced around for a minute before he finally asked, "Does anyone have a pen and paper or something? Maybe I can try to draw it out."

Rikku quickly retrieved said items from her pouch before huddling up in her corner again, and the others all watched as Sora attempted to sketch out a somewhat sloppy looking image of the symbol that the three Keybearers all wore as badges. When he was finished, they were all treated to the sight of an image that was very angular and squared, and looked like a heart with a sharp cross at its base, with the cross's points were very compact and close together. "Now bear in mind, I'm not the best artist, but this is definitely really close to what I saw the three of them wearing. Ven and Aqua both wore it on their chests, over a set of crisscrossing straps, while Terra wore his and his belt," Sora informed the group after he had finished his sketch and allowed them to study the image.

"I would say that you are much better than you give yourself credit for, because that looks almost exactly like the badge that I saw Terra wearing during his time in Wakanda," T'Challa revealed.

"And you say you have no way to stop these visions from happening," Clint asked.

"Yeah," Sora confirmed. "The only sign that I ever get of them coming is a slight or intense headache, and by that point, it's already about to happen."

"Has this ever happened while you were on mission, or in the middle of a fight," Cap asked.

"Yes, it has," Spider-Man answered for Sora. "That is why you suddenly seemed to blank out when we were fighting that one big Heartless, Kraven, and Mysterio on your first day at Midtown, right?"

"Uh…Yeah, pretty much, but from what I could tell, I was only out of it for a few minutes," Sora tried to insist. "That last blast was the first time that it lasted longer than normal. The only other time that one of my visions took so long was when I was sleeping on our flight to Wakanda."

"First you can't control when your Keyblade zaps you to another world, and now you've got visions that you can't control at all? What next, a crazy spell that just goes off whenever it feels like it," Clint asked.

"Well when you think about it," Gwen started to say, already preparing to reference Sora's world-hopping ability.

"Shush," Clint immediately interrupted, not wanting to hear it.

"Sora, I understand being a little worried about telling us this, but you still should've come to us about this sooner. What if you had blacked out like you had in the middle of a fight? None of us would've known what was wrong or how to react it that was the case," Steve stated, getting them back on track again.

"I know, I know, but…I was scared of what you guys would think. I don't have the slightest clue about why I'm having these visions, or if they're trying to tell me something other than small hints about how to control my powers. Besides, like I said, I can't control when they happen, so…" Sora started to say, only to stop short when he found that there was nothing else he could say in his defense.

In point of fact, no one could really think of something to say for a few minutes. For the most part, it was because well over half the group was made up of people from Spira, namely Yuna and all of her guardians, and while Tidus and Wakka were Sora's friends, they had been separated from him for quite a while now and had no clue as to what he had been going through since gaining the Keyblade, so they did not feel like they could really offer up much help in this department. As for Sora's fellow Avengers, they were just as hard pressed to think of some way to make this right by Sora as everyone else. After all that they had been through alongside of him, from freeing Wakanda of Man-Ape's tyranny, to the conflict with Zemo, and all the way up to the trials of the Gamma World incident, they had not really considered the idea that Sora could have been having a harder time dealing with his own problems than they did. They had been so impressed by his coolness under fire and how much power he possessed that some of them did forget that Sora was still a kid, and that meant he likely had a hard time really figuring out how to deal with some of the stuff that came with the world that he had been dropped into.

The silence lasted for what felt like an eternity, and Sora was starting to think that he should have tried a little harder to come up with a better excuse so that he could keep his visions to himself, until he felt someone place a hand on his shoulder. Turning to the person attached to said hand, he ended up setting eyes on Peter, who slowly removed his mask so that Sora could better see his rather stern looking face as he spoke. "You're a smart kid, Sora, but keeping quiet about all of this was just plain stupid," Peter stated.

"But I…" Sora started to argue.

"Just hear me out," Peter interrupted. "I get what it's like being a teenager and a superhero at the same time. You feel like you've got the whole world on your shoulders, and you've gotta juggle that with all kinds of other drama in your life, thinking that if you mess up in either one, you're likely going to face some pretty tough consequences. I know that because I've been where you are. Don't forget, I may have been Spider-Man for a little over a year now, but I'm still just a teenager myself, and in my first few months of wearing this suit and slinging webs, I had to figure out all of this superhero stuff all by myself. Literally nobody else knows my secret identity aside from all of the people in this room, so imagine what it was like for me, learning how to juggle two entirely different lives, trying to find some type of balance between them, and making it all work in a way that doesn't make me give up one or the other. It's probably the toughest part of being Spider-Man, and it only got harder when I found myself having to cut ties with a lot of my friends for one reason or another, be it because I wanted to keep them safe, or because my actions had made them want nothing to do with me, Spidey, or both for one reason or another. But unlike me, you don't have to do any of that."

"Huh?"

"I doubt that I need to remind you that you don't really have a secret identity back on Earth, or whatever fancy name other people use for our world, but it's not just that. You've got teammates, friends who have your back no matter what. Not just in saving the world, but in everything else, too. What, you think it isn't obvious that Mr. Stark is paying for you to go to school, or that I didn't think you might get some tutoring from some of the other Avengers? Heck, Yuffie admitted that she and Black Panther were helping you learn how to fight better, and that Cap was too from time to time. If none of that is proof that you can go to them about stuff, no matter how big or small it might be, then I don't know what is. Plus, you have to also remember the fact that they made you some armor, including a gauntlet that would warn you about when the Keyblade was going to take you another world in advance, so that you could make sure that others wouldn't be pulled along for the ride. Sure, that last one might need a little work, but it doesn't change my point. Don't be like me and try to take on all the responsibility by yourself. If there's something wrong, you can turn to your friends for help, no matter what it is. After all, sometimes, following through the responsibility that our powers come with, means that you need to know when you can share the load."

"Or to put it another way, sometimes, you just need to learn when to swallow your Parker Pride and let others help you out," Gwen cottoned on with a sly smirk being thrown at her best friend since childhood.

Peter could only sigh in response before he asked, "Are you sure it's been a while since you last saw Aunt May, because that sounds way too much like something she would say to me."

Sora could only smile at the two, partly because he was amused at the way they were interacting with each other, and partly as thanks to them for their words. The only problem was that seeing them interact with each other like this made him wonder once again why they were not together. It was obvious that they had feelings for each other, so why was it that Gwen was with Harry Osborn and not Peter? There had to be some kind of explanation or a deeper story there, and Sora was now more determined than ever to figure out what that was. Of course, that also made him wonder if it was related to the bruise that he saw on Gwen's arm the other day, or if it had anything to do with that scarf she still had wrapped tightly around her neck, but that would have to wait until later. Right now, he just settled for keeping his smile up as best as he could, and said, "Thanks you guys. That means a lot."

"It better, because Spider-Boy isn't wrong," Clint promised, ignoring the subsequent name correction that Peter grumbled out seconds later. "You trusted me enough to let me help you with stopping the Leader, and to convince me to join the team, so why not let all of us help you deal with whatever wacky dreams you may be having."

"Hawkeye is right," T'Challa agreed. "We would be more than happy to help you discover the answer to this mystery as soon as we can."

"Besides, we're already helping you out with a lot of other things. What's one more mystery at this point," Steve finished with a determined smile.

"Hey, don't think we're just going to sit back and watch, man," Wakka interrupted. "Sure, we may not be able to help for long, but we're still willing to do something to help, too."

Sora's smile widened at that, and when he found his voice getting caught in his throat at hearing everyone else offering up similar agreements, he simply nodded his thanks once more, glad that he had so many friends willing to help him with this. He did feel bad about dumping this on them, since, like Cap said, they were already helping him with a lot of other things, but it was still good to know that they were so willing to offer and give that aid if he simply asked. With that little moment over, everyone agreed that it was time for them to get some shut-eye before they continued heading towards Macalania Temple, and they all quickly broke up into separate groups so that they were not all cramped into one room. Everyone except Rikku, that is, as she was still huddled over in an attempt to block out the lightning and thunder that continued raging outside.

Seeing the state of the Spiran blonde, Peter felt that he had to do something for her too. Luckily, he had a feeling that helping her would be a little easier than helping out Sora. "Hey, Rikku," Peter called out before she disappeared upstairs, getting the attention of said blonde, Miles, and Gwen when he did. "Do you have any small hobbies?"

Rikku did not really understand why he was asking that, but still answered all the same. "Well…I do like to tinker around with various different things like weapons or various machina."

Peter could only smirk at seeing that his hunch was right, and he then quickly removed one of his gloves and the web-shooter tucked underneath it as he asked, "Would you like to take a closer look at one of my web-shooters?"

"What? Really," Rikku asked, barely even registering the most recent thunderclap from outside after hearing that offer.

"Sure. I mean, if you're any good at tinkering, maybe the two of us could come up with some modifications I could make that will guarantee I won't run out of webbing before we get back home," Peter shrugged.

That earned him an excited cheer from the girl, and the two quickly set to work, with Miles offering to lend a hand a few seconds later. Gwen on the other hand, could only smile in awe at Peter coming to the rescue once again in another way. Sure, she knew that Peter did a lot of that as Spider-Man, but she always admired the fact that Peter could save the day without a costume or powers, even if he did not realize it. Of course, that same quality was also why she was keeping something pretty big hidden from Peter, and now that she had learned he was Spider-Man, she had to wonder even more if it was wise to tell him about it or not. Gwen just was not sure, and that question continued to bother her, even as she joined the other three in their little bit of brainstorming, all the while, thankful that Rikku was not jumping and squeaking every time thunder clapped or lightning flashed from outside.

* * *

Later that night, sleep proved to be very elusive to Sora, and he figured that all the excitement they had been through, coupled with the rather long nap he had in Guadosalam had left him with a little too much energy to properly fall asleep. No surprise really, as he had been in similar spots in the past after napping on the beaches back on Destiny Islands, so he did what he would always do back on his home world whenever he had a moment like that: he took to roaming the halls in an effort to work off the excess energy. It drove his mom crazy sometimes, assuming that she was still awake when he took those strolls, but it had also proven much more helpful than just reading a book or a glass of milk for Sora, and at the moment, neither of those things were readily available to him as far as he knew, so he resolved to apologize to his friends and any other patrons in the inn later if he woke anyone up.

As it turned out, Sora soon learned that he was not the only one awake, because he could hear the sound of a muffled voice coming from one of the rooms. When he drew closer to where the voice was coming from, Sora recognized it to be Yuna's room, but it was definitely not Yuna's voice that he was hearing. That made the Keybearer a little worried for the summoner, and Sora quickly made his way over to the door and knocked, intending to make sure that Yuna was okay. A minute after he knocked, Yuna had yanked the door open, and from where Sora was standing, she looked very troubled about something. A simple glance to the desk that was in Yuna's room quickly told Sora what the likely cause was, but he was not too surprised by the fact that the likely culprit was the sphere that Jyscal's spirit had dropped when he came out of the Farplane a few hours ago.

"Everything okay, Yuna," Sora asked, feeling that he should still extend the courtesy of asking even if he already had a good idea what the answer was.

"Um, yes, everything's fine, Master Sora," the summoner quickly insisted. When the look of concern Sora held did not show any signs of disappearing, Yuna immediately added, "Really, there's nothing to worry about."

Sora did not let up his concern, but instead, he simply said, "And people say that I'm a terrible liar." Before Yuna could protest and say that she was being honest, Sora went on to say, "You know, what Peter said about letting your friends help you didn't just apply to me. Your friends are just as willing to help you too, Yuna, and that goes for me and my friends too. Whatever is on that sphere, if it's important, than you should let us know before you do something too crazy."

Those words hung in the air for a minute before Yuna waved for Sora to come in, let him take a seat, and began to explain herself. "This sphere that Lord Jyscal dropped has me really worried, and after I saw what was on it…I feel like I can't ignore it," Yuna admitted, presenting the sphere to Sora so that they could watch it together.

The minute that Yuna hit the necessary command to play the sphere, the two were greeted with the image of Jyscal, and the message that he relayed to them left Sora very shocked, and a little worried about what Yuna was planning to do with it. _"What I am about to tell you is the unclouded truth. I swear it on my honor as a Guado. Listen to me very carefully, for I shall tell you the truth about my son, Seymour. His mind is closed even to me, a maester of Yevon, but I can feel flames of darkness burning in his heart. He is using Yevon, the Guado, and even the summoners, and if they were here, he would likely be attempting to use the legendary wielders of the Keyblade as well. If he is not stopped, he will surely bring destruction and chaos to Spira. I will leave this world soon, killed by own son and the dark allies he has made, but I do not fault Seymour. Because I was not wise enough, he has suffered, and become twisted. Perhaps it is due in part to the masked boy who wields such dark powers, including the ability to summon the vile fiends that he called the Heartless, but it does not change the facts. I could not protect Seymour and his mother from the world and its cruelty, so I will accept death as punishment for my deeds. But whoever is watching this, I implore you to stop Seymour! Stop my son, and the masked man who allied with him. You will know him by the blade he carries, as it resembles a demon's wing, and has a blue, slitted eye in the hilt. Please stop them, for the sake of Spira and her future."_

When the message finished playing, Yuna quickly figured out that Sora had a good idea who the masked man Jyscal was talking about was just from how Sora's fists clenched and tightened. She was not wrong, as all the details that Jyscal described were ones that Sora knew to be ones that he associated with Night Hunter, but at the same time, there was still more to Sora's anger and frustration than the fact that his new arch-nemesis was on Spira. In point of fact, Sora was probably more upset over learning that Seymour had killed his own father, and was now manipulating everyone into doing whatever he wanted them to do. Needless to say, Sora did not need Jyscal to ask for him to decide that he was going to stop Seymour, but before he could run out and tell the others, he remembered that Yuna had most likely already watched the video on this sphere at least once, so he had to assume that she had a plan of her own in mind. When he looked to her and saw that Yuna looked more than a little nervous, Sora quickly got the feeling that whatever Yuna was thinking was probably not a plan he and the others would have agreed with.

"So…what were you planning to do with this," Sora questioned, and his posture showed that he was not going to take anything but the full, honest truth. It was a little scary to see Sora being so serious, at least for anyone who knew the boy who was usually so cheerful and smiley, but even though she had not personally known him that long, Yuna was still pretty intimidated at the sight, and could not keep her plan quiet at seeing him like this.

"I was…I was going to tell Maester Seymour that I would accept his proposal," Yuna started to explain, earning her a disbelieving look from Sora. Seeing that and knowing what it meant, Yuna picked up the pace in her explanation before the Keybearer could make any outbursts from a mistaken assumption. "I would only do so in order to get close enough and confront him on the matter. If there is a chance that he can be redeemed for his crimes, then we should at least give him the chance to do so. It may be risky, but it is a risk I'm willing to take."

"And what if you're wrong, Yuna? What is Seymour doesn't regret what he did to his father or anyone else," Sora questioned. His answer was nothing but silence, and he knew that he had made a point. "Trust me, if he's willingly working with Night Hunter in the way that I think he is, then he's beyond redemption. I've seen the kind of people that Night Hunter works with, and most of them are not the kind of people who care about anything other than getting what they want. Besides, don't forget that me and Peter both sensed that something was off with the guy right from the moment we met him. I'd say that's a pretty good sign that he doesn't want to atone for any crimes he's committed. He needs to be stopped by any means necessary. Besides, you can't put yourself at risk like that. What if you do go through with this, and when you try to back out, Seymour does something to force you to see the marriage through? Do you really want to be stuck with that guy as your husband?"

"I…I don't, but…What else can I do," Yuna stuttered, now really confused.

"That's easy. Let us help you," Sora replied. "Like Peter told me earlier, you've got friends who are willing to have your back, so you shouldn't shut them out if there's a chance they can help."

"But I don't want them to get involved in this," Yuna argued. "I know that they're willing to risk their lives to protect me, but they're not just my friends or guardians. They're like my family, and I don't want to lose any of them."

"You won't. We'll all stand by you and make sure that we're there with you until the very end, because that's what real friends and family always do," Sora promised. He then placed a hand on her shoulder with a reassuring smile, as if to make her better understand what he was saying, and in the end, Yuna could not help but return his smile with a small one of her own. "Get some rest for now. We'll show the others the sphere in the morning and start coming up with a plan then."

Yuna agreed to that, and with that settled, Sora turned to head back to his room, now feeling tired enough to fall sleep. Proof once again that his little late-night walks do in fact help him to work off any excess energy that was preventing him from getting some shut-eye.

* * *

True to his word, when everyone had woke up the next day, Sora had Yuna show the group Jyscal's sphere, and the group's reactions to the revelation from the deceased Guado as the two had expected. Naturally, they were upset that a maester would ally with such dangerous creatures like the Heartless, but more than that, they were outraged to find out that Seymour had killed his own father, right to the point where they almost missed the part about how the current Guado leader was now trying to use the other maesters and followers of Yevon and the summoners for his own purposes. Just what those purposes were, they could not say, but they did have a few words on what Yuna had originally planned to do with that information. Needless to say, none of those words were in agreement with her plan, though no one failed to notice how Tidus was the most vocal about how it was a bad idea. What was even more surprising was how against it Gwen appeared to be, almost like she knew exactly what kind of consequences would await if Yuna's plan did fail. No one really thought to question her on the matter, but only because of the more pressing matter that they were facing at the moment.

"You know, for once I would agree with the big guy's go-to plan on how to deal with this: we just kick Seymour's butt," Hawkeye half-joked.

"Technically the Hulk would say that we should just smash Seymour," T'Challa quipped in return. "Either way, while a conflict may be inevitable, we should go in with an intention to fight. If we are the ones to strike first, we will be seen as the aggressors, and Seymour will have more credibility to his name; credibility that he will no doubt use against us and to assist both his own goals, and those of Night Hunter and the Heartless."

"Maybe, but most of the methods we have available to us in trying to trick him into revealing his crimes have too great of a risk factor to them as well," Captain America argued.

"And most of those risks would fall on Yuna, Sora, or both," Spider-Man added, having already thought about those very scenarios as well.

"Plan that put Yuna at risk is not option," Kimahri stated in a tone of finality, and no one was going to argue with the Ronso on that, even if they wanted too.

"This all feels wrong," Lulu muttered under her breath, not liking the fact that they were planning to most likely battle against a maester of Yevon like this.

"I know," Wakka whispered, having been the only one to overhear her. "But if he is guilty, then we should at least confirm that and give him a chance to really explain himself. Besides, if he is guilty, then do you want him anywhere near Yuna, or anyone else for that matter?"

Lulu could not deny that Wakka had a point there, so she made no effort to do so. That did not mean that she joined the others on forming a plan on how to deal with the situation, though, but that was mostly because they were not having too much success in thinking of anything concrete that they could go forward with. Their brainstorming lasted all throughout the remainder of their trek through the Thunder Plains, even as they fought both Heartless and fiends of various shapes and sizes, and at least halfway into the Macalania Woods. None of them were able to come up with something that seemed doable or even certain to guarantee that they would be able to expose and stop Seymour without some form of casualty or serious injury to their group, and they were quickly running out of time to come up with something, considering that Seymour was likely waiting for them at Macalania Temple.

It was at that point that Gwen finally stepped forward with an idea of her own. "We know that Seymour's waiting for us at the next temple right," the blonde asked. When the others all nodded in reply, she then asked, "Well is there anywhere he can go after that?"

"No. He would have to go back the way he came once his business was finished at Macalania Temple, just like the rest of us and anyone else visiting that temple would," Auron replied.

"So then, why don't we just corner him there," Gwen suggested. "It'd be the perfect place to get some answers, or even a confession, and, assuming Pete has his camera on him, we would be able to record it and show it to the proper authorities. Not only that, but if he did try to escape, he would have no choice but to try and force his way through us, and if Seymour's like any other supervillain, he'll likely try to attack us to get do that, meaning the only reason we would have to fight would be in self-defense."

"Yeah, that makes sense to me," Miles agreed. "Besides, I'm sure at least one of you Avengers has a camera or something in your mask, right?"

"Well…I've got one in my helmet, so we could probably use that," Sora admitted.

"And Gwen…I'm a little offended you would think that I didn't have my camera with me," Peter joked as he retrieved said device from his belt, and even with his mask on, Gwen knew that her friend had that cheesy grin on his face that she had come to love.

"There's still one small problem with that," Lulu revealed, getting everyone's attention. "Tradition states that the summoner must be escorted to Macalania Temple with one of the Guado, while their Guardians are only to follow after they send someone else later on. Aside from that, you forget that your cameras may be viewed as some of the forbidden machina."

"Please. My arrows and T'Challa's daggers being viewed that way, I can understand, but how could someone see a fancy helmet or a regular old digital camera as bad," Clint asked.

"She still brings up a good point," Steve cut in before anyone could get into a needless debate. "And if that's what tradition says, then we don't really have any choice but to let Yuna take a risk like that."

"Maybe not," Spider-Man countered, and somehow, they all had a feeling that he was still smiling. "After all, the tradition says that only the guardians have to wait behind before being allowed through, but not all of us are Yuna's official guardians, remember? And besides, it's not like we don't have some people that can't follow without being noticed, right?"

When they heard that, everyone had quickly come to the same conclusion, and could only grin as Sora stated it aloud for everyone. "Spider-Man, it sounds to me like you've got a plan."

"And it might even be a good one, too," Peter joked soon after, motioning for everyone to gather around in a group huddle so that he could better explain it to them.

* * *

"This is place is really cold," Sora shivered while rubbing his arms in an attempt to warm himself up a little. "Seriously! How is it so cold here when we were just in a forest that was really warm?"

"If Sora think this cold, Sora should wait until arriving at Ronso home, Mount Gagazet," Kimahri teasingly grinned.

"P-Please don't even joke about that," Wakka stuttered, mainly because he was shivering even more than Sora.

"Sheesh, man up you guys. This isn't that bad, and this is coming from the guy who didn't wear the thermal version of his suit," Peter remarked, adding into the teasing.

"Guess they're just too used to the beach or something," Clint said, poking fun at the two as well.

"Hey, islander, what can I say," Sora shrugged in response.

"Yeah," Wakka agreed with grinning pride. A minute later, he was exchanging a quick low-five with Sora, and Tidus joined in soon after, only for all three of them to start shivering like crazy again when a particular cold wind blew past them.

All joking was brought to an end when Yuna alerted the group to someone approaching them, and they all turned to see the Guado that had greeted them upon their arrival into Guadosalam walking up to them. "Lady Yuna, we've been expecting you," the Guado happily greeted. "We were surprised you decided to come so soon. Pleasantly surprised, of course. And might I be so bold as to say that it is quite joyous to see that you are still traveling with the young Keyblade master, and even more so to see that he's doing much better after his sudden…collapse in Lord Seymour's home."

"Uh…Tromell, right? Sorry if I worried you or anything. I guess I was just feeling really tired or something," Sora quickly fibbed. It took a great deal of restraint on his part to not shoot a cross look in Clint's direction when the archer rolled his eyes at the rather pathetic sounding excuse, but it did seem to have convinced Tromell.

"Think nothing of it. You are young, and bear an even greater responsibility than anyone else on Spira, even the summoners and maesters of Yevon. I think we would be more worried if you did not eventually find yourself in need of resting at all," Tromell happily waved off, though it came across as too happy to be genuine in the eyes and ears of the Avengers and their friends. "Lord Seymour also sends his apologies for having left without notice," Tromell think quickly added, apparently having noticed the suspicious looks that he was getting from his last comment.

"It's quite alright," Yuna reassured him. "I have one question, if I may, sir."

"My lady?"

"I want to keep journeying, even if I marry. Do you think that Maester Seymour would let me?"

"But of course, My Lady. Lord Seymour wishes nothing else, I'm sure," Tromell immediately replied.

"Well, that answer came pretty quickly," Hawkeye whispered.

"Yeah, a little too quickly," Miles agreed, with the others all silently confirming a similar suspicion.

Yuna just smiled in response before nodding to the group and approaching Tromell, knowing that he would lead her to Macalania Temple, but just as the Guado in question was about to lead her away, he was surprised to see that Sora was moving to join them as well. "Just a moment, young man. I understand that you wish to aid Lady Yuna however is possible, as is the duty of a summoner's guardian, but we still must follow Guado tradition. I'll have to ask you to wait here a little while longer, and I'll send someone to escort you."

"Maybe, but I'm not an official guardian, remember? I'm a Keyblade master, and we're the exception to those rules," Sora reminded. "Besides, no offense, but you don't exactly strike me as much of a fighter, so wouldn't it make sense to have someone who can fight to look out for you two as you head for the temple?"

Tromell could not think of any argument for that, as he knew that Sora was correct, so he simply nodded in reply and allowed the young man to join them, never noticing the discreet nods that the Avengers were giving their young teammate. He did notice how Yuna had hesitated in their departure for a moment though, but before he could say anything, Tidus beat him to the punch. "We're all with you, no matter what, Yuna," the blonde promised. "And don't forget…" He then put two fingers in his mouth and let out a loud whistle.

That brought a bright smile to Yuna's face, and she immediately nodded and replied, "Yessir, and thank you."

With that, the summoner and Keybearer turned to head out with Tromell, while the latter just quirked an eyebrow in confusion, curious about the last bit of Yuna's exchange with Tidus. The young lady easily caught on to that, and seemed happy to explain it to him. "Tidus told me that if I was ever in trouble, I should just whistle like that, and he would come running."

"Oh, gotcha," Sora nodded in response. "He told me something pretty similar once, a long time ago when we were little kids, but I could never get it right, so he told me to just stick to shouting out for my friends if I ever needed them."

Yuna only giggle in reply to Sora's recollection of his childhood memories, but before they could exchange anymore words or stories, a loud noise greeted their ears, and they both turned with Tromell to see squadron of people racing over to them on what looked like large snowmobiles. Out of instinct, Sora summoned his Keyblade, thinking that these people were not here to help given how they were surrounding the three of them, and from the look of things, his instincts were good, because the guardians and the Avengers were all quickly jumping down to form a defensive perimeter around the three. That did not stop the strange newcomers from getting jumping off their vehicles and drawing what appeared to be rifles to fire at a moment's notice.

"Stay back," Auron cautioned Tromell. He then looked to the Avengers and added, "Be on your guard. The Al Bhed are not to be taken lightly."

"You mean these guys are the Al Bhed you told us about," Clint questioned.

"Yep, this is them," Wakka confirmed.

"Well then, they picked the wrong team to mess with," Sora stated with confidence, activating his helmet and gauntlets as he did, while Hawkeye notched an arrow, Captain America moved his shield from his back to his arm, and T'Challa drew a pair of vibranium daggers.

Apparently seeing the Avengers threw the Al Bhed off a little, as some of them slowly began stepping back, while others just turned to retreat, but that assumption turned out to be false, as they could all soon see a massive, heavily armed tank-like thing rising up from over the hills, while the apparent leader of these Al Bhed simply stood there looking smug. "Rikku! Tuh'd ehdanvana un oui kad drec," the man in question shouted, making everyone pause and stare at the blonde girl in question, wondering why she had been singled out. They did not have to wonder for long, as the machine suddenly ejected a pair of small drones that began to glow a little, while the man chuckled, "Ouin bnaleuic sykel yht yauhc yna caymat!"

"Oh, no," Rikku gasped in shock.

"What? What did he say," Tidus asked.

"How should we know? That didn't exactly sound like any language I know, and I know a pretty good number of other languages," Clint replied.

T'Challa was about to say something similar, but before he could, Rikku showed she was capable of understanding what had been said, by exclaiming, "He's gonna use an anti-magic field on us!"

"KAD DRAS," the Al Bhed leader shouted, and like that, the tank-like machine raced forward and dropped down in front of them before opening fire, forcing everyone to either dodge or duck behind Captain America and his mighty shield.

When he finally found a break the machine's attacks, Sora quickly turned his Keyblade towards the sky, and attempted to cast Thunder, thinking that the Al Bhed machine would not be able to block his magic, but he was soon proven wrong, as absolutely nothing happened, no matter how hard he tried. Normally, he would have laid the blame for that on his own magic abilities, but when he found himself unable to call on any of his spells at all, or his teleportation magic, or even his ability to either dismiss or summon the Keyblade to his hand, Sora knew that he was just as vulnerable to the anti-magic field as the rest of the group. Luckily, he did not need magic to deal with that problem, and neither did his fellow Avengers, as Hawkeye and Black Panther both proved when they shot off an arrow and a vibranium dagger at the two drones maintaining the anti-magic field, disabling the drones when they did, while Captain America tossed his shield into the gatling gun, damaging it quite a bit when the shield struck.

When the tank deployed another set of drones to reestablish the field, Sora immediately aimed his off-hand's repulsor gauntlet towards it and fired off the energy blast, destroying it before it could activate, and surprising the others a little by his attack. Sora just shrugged in response and said, "What? Just because I can't use magic, doesn't mean I don't have other abilities to help with that. Besides, do you guys really want to complain right now?"

No one could really argue with that, though that was mainly because they had to dodge more enemy fire from the massive machine, and the few Al Bhed that had decided to stick around and help fight. Two of those Al Bhed were quickly taken down though, surprisingly, by Gwen and Miles. The minute that the two teens had knocked out their targets, they quickly grabbed the weapons that the Al Bhed had been using and opened fire on the machine, hoping to disorient its systems long enough for the others to initiate a second wave of counterattacks. Wakka was easily able to join the two teens in their long-ranged attacks, utilizing his Blitzball to knock out the newest drones, while Rikku tossed a grenade to finish off said drones, freeing Lulu up to use her magic on the machine, while Tidus, Auron, Kimahri, Cap, and T'Challa all charged in to attack the machine in a frontal assault.

Sora would have joined the five in their charge had Clint not suddenly stopped him with one arm. "Don't worry about us. We can handle this rolling scrap pile. You just get Yuna and Tromell to the temple," Clint ordered before he reached into his quiver for another arrow.

"Do you really think we're going to just leave you guys here," Sora questioned, thinking Clint had forgotten who he was talking to for a minute.

"I didn't say that. Besides, you've got a mission of your own to worry about, remember," Hawkeye quietly reminded the kid, his eyes moving off to the side in a silent reminder of some things that had already been put into motion.

Sora caught the message easily enough, and just nodded in return before he turned to Yuna and Tromell and said, "All right, you guys heard the man. Let's get moving. The others will catch up once they're done here."

"Very well then," Yuna agreed, and with that, the three all turned and quickly made their way down the path. She had expected Tromell to argue and say that they should still wait for that escort he mentioned earlier, but it appeared that he was too freaked out by the surprise attack to think about that, because he just simply ran for it as quickly as he could, while still making sure to stay close to Sora and Yuna.

Throughout both the departure of the Keyblade wielder's group and the battle that the rest of their allies were getting into, no one seemed to take notice of the red and blue clad wall crawler that had slipped out of the fight during the confusion, and was now following after the departing trio as stealthily as he could, even as he shot hesitant looks of worry back over his shoulder towards his two friends.

* * *

The trek to Macalania Temple was rather long and passed in a silence that put Sora and Yuna both on edge. Sure, they knew that they had a plan in place and the others would be able to deal with the Al Bhed well enough without them, but there was still no hiding the fact that they were walking into the lion's den with so little backup. All the same, they needed for this to happen if they were to expose Seymour and his crimes, and if all went well, they would more than likely get out relatively unscathed. All the same, it would have made both summoner and Keybearer feel a little more at ease if they knew that the rest of their friends were not being held up by the fight that they had been forced to leave them in earlier.

Such worries had to take a backseat, as they soon arrived in the temple, and with Sora's help, Yuna easily managed to make it through the Cloister of Trials and to the Chamber of the Fayth, where they found Seymour waiting for them with an unsettling grin on his face. They did not exchange very many words with the leader of the Guado, aside from Yuna being very careful in how she worded her response when Seymour asked if she had made up her mind about his marriage proposal. Sora was just relieved that she did not say anything that would imply if she was leaning one way or the other in that answer, and that Seymour did not seem to upset by her supposed indecisiveness, and with very little else to be said, Yuna calmly stepped into the chamber so that she could pray to the Fayth and acquire another summon, leaving Sora alone with Seymour. The two remained silent for a few moments, with Sora glancing around the room in an attempt to keep from going stir-crazy, until finally, Sora received his cue to act on his part of the plan, and turned to speak with Seymour.

"So Seymour, you said that you wanted to marry Yuna because you think it would help bring happiness to the people of Spira, right," Sora inquired, attempting to make small talk as best as he could.

"Indeed, my boy. After all, as a maester of Yevon, it is my sworn duty to always think of the people. Though I will admit, there is a part of me that is quite taken with Lady Yuna," Seymour replied.

"Still, it's interesting that you would want to do something like that just to make people happy. Kinda like your father and what he did by introducing the Guado to the teachings of Yevon, right," Sora pointed out. When Seymour gave him a surprised look, Sora explained, "My friends told me a few things about Spira while we were traveling, and I was curious about this world and its customs."

"I see. You did not strike as the type to be so willing to learn about intricate and historical matters," Seymour admitted.

"Hey, when it comes to stuff about other worlds, of course I'm interested," Sora replied while resting both hands behind his head. "Ever since I was a kid, I've dreamed about seeing other worlds, not just because the idea was so exciting, but also because I wanted to know what they were like, and after I go the Keyblade and starting visiting other worlds, I got to experience and learn so many things that it really helped drive home the idea that every world is unique. Now, I want to learn everything I can about each and every world I visit, even if it's something that some would think isn't important or just plain silly."

Seymour seemed to find Sora's words to be either humorous or entertaining, because he let out a soft chuckle in response before he finally stated, "You are certainly a bright young man, Master Sora. I think I'm beginning to see why the Keyblade chose you as its wielder."

"Well, if you really care as much about the people of Spira as you say you do, then I guess I can see why you were chosen as your father's successor, even if he wasn't too popular with most people for a while," Sora remarked.

"Whatever do you mean by that," Seymour inquired.

"Well, didn't marrying your mother make a lot of people really upset or something," Sora asked. "And besides that, it couldn't have been easy for him to have to deal with losing her, being a maester and raising you all by himself."

"My father did not spend that much time raising me. I grew up away from Guadosalam in one of the distant temples," Seymour revealed. "I had intended to become a summoner like Lady Yuna, but after what happened to my mother, I could not carry on, so I abandoned my pilgrimage. It was a deep shame that I was forced to carry for many years until I finally returned home."

"Did that play any part in your decision to kill your dad," Sora then asked, his tone taking a full 180 from cheerful to serious and demanding.

"I beg your pardon," Seymour asked, trying to sound innocent and surprised.

"Don't bother trying to pretend. I know that you did, and that you had help from a certain hunter," Sora revealed, but he had to stop himself from revealing how he knew this fact.

Seymour just stared at Sora for a minute before he finally let out a deep, sinister chuckle and said, "Perhaps I should have had you dealt with while you were unconscious earlier. You are far more troublesome than I gave you credit for. Though I wonder if Night Hunter himself knows just how much of a problem you can be."

"So you do know him," Sora stated. "You know that Night Hunter's a dangerous criminal who has attacked many innocent lives and endangered other worlds by allying with the Heartless, right? Or does that even bother you since you let yourself be attacked by the Heartless when we first met?"

"I assure you my boy, I had not faked that attack. Some events that occurred prior to your arrival caused the Heartless to slip from my control momentarily and then attack me, but you are correct when you say that I am aware of what kind of man Night Hunter is. That is the whole reason why I am his ally, and part of the same group that he works for. With the powers that I have gained access to through working with them, including the power of the Heartless, I will be able to achieve all of my goals. After all, I've already managed to usurp my old fool of a father's position, and gained myself a position of high authority among the maesters of Yevon, and now, all that remains is my final goal," Seymour revealed.

Sora was a little surprised to hear that Night Hunter was working with a larger group, but he put that aside for now, because there were more important things to deal with at the moment. There was no telling how long he had before Yuna acquired her next aeon, and he had to get all of the information that they needed out of Seymour before that. Not only that, but he also needed to stall for time until the others arrived in case Seymour decided to attack him in order to keep him from talking, so he kept on prodding as carefully as he could. "And just what does Yuna have to do with that," Sora asked, confusing Seymour as to why that was being brought up. "I'm not stupid enough to think that she doesn't play some part in your little scheme, and that you're really trying to marry her out of genuine love or something like that. Anyone with half a brain would know that someone like you would only propose out of the blue like you did if the girl in question had something to do with your grand scheme."

Seymour looked a little insulted at first from Sora's accusations, but he quickly collected himself so that he could calmly answer. "Why Lady Yuna is the final key to achieving my ultimate goal: control over all of Spira. With her power, I will be able to take full control of Sin for myself, and from there, it will be easy for me to establish a new world order. Any who oppose me would be subject to destruction at my hands."

"Are you seriously telling me that your killed good people and are now just using Yuna as a means to an end so you can take over the world like some cliché comic book villain," Sora asked in disbelief.

"Oh no, Sora, I'm not any cliché villain, for I will succeed, and I am very much real," Seymour dismissed, clearly not finding it necessary to deny the facts. "With the powers of Heartless and Sin at my command, there will be nothing that anyone can do to stop me. Not even you, little Keyblade Samurai."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Sora stated, his Keyblade popping into his hand in the usual flash of light while he put some distance between him and the half-Guado maester so that he could fully drop into his battle stance. "My friends and I will stop you and defeat Sin for good."

"Others before you have tried and failed to stop Sin, but you will soon see that my plan is the more realistic goal. After all, the power I already have as a maester of Yevon make me untouchable just because you and your friends can't do anything to me without facing dire consequences in turn," Seymour stated in confidence. That confidence quickly started to waver though when Sora started to laugh in response. "What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing. Just that your 'power' as a maester of Yevon didn't let you catch onto the fact that everything you and I have been saying was being recorded the whole time," Sora revealed, startling Seymour when he did. To better explain the revelation, Sora tapped the side of his helmet as he said, "My helmet has a built in camera that records everything I see and hear when its activated, and it also has a projection function on it that would allow me to show everyone the conversation we just had. Combine that with the sphere that we received from your father after he momentarily appeared from the Farplane, and I'd say that there's a very good chance that you'll be facing serious charges."

"Why you little…give me that sphere and that helmet, now," Seymour growled, charging at Sora as he did in a clear attempt to attack him. Sora just jumped back and dodged the villain, and continued to do so as Seymour pressed his attack, blocking with his Keyblade when he needed to, which became a little more frequent when Seymour started shooting magic spells at Sora. "Is this how you intend to stop me, boy? By running away and blocking?!"

"No, I just had to make sure that we got enough photographic proof that showed you had been the first to attack before I made any move to strike back," Sora replied.

"As if anything that is recorded on the helmet could help prove…" Seymour started to say before Sora's words registered in his mind. "Did you say 'we'?"

"Yeah, I did," Sora confirmed as he stood down and then pointed upwards.

When Seymour looked to where Sora had pointed, he was quickly greeted with a single pellet of webbing that quickly expanded to encase him in a massive spider web, while the spectacular Spider-Man himself dropped down from the ceiling, holding a camera in the hand that had not just shot off the newest variant of his webs. "Guess I should've known that bad guys being gullible idiots no matter how crafty or clever they may be is a universal constant throughout all the worlds," the web-head quipped. "Well that, and the fact that people never think to look up anymore until someone points something out to them from that direction."

"And I think it's safe to say that the new Impact Webbing we cooked up worked like a charm, didn't it," Rikku's voice piped up, informing everyone that the girl in question had just arrived along with the rest of Yuna's guardians, the Avengers, Miles, and Gwen, the two last of which were still wielding their borrowed guns from earlier.

At that moment, the door into the Chamber of the Fayth opened, allowing Yuna to step out with a disappointed look on her face. Though everyone could tell that it was not because she had failed in acquiring another aeon; no, it was because she had heard everything from the other side of the door. "A part of me had hoped we were wrong, Maester Seymour, but it would seem that you really have fallen into as deep a darkness as your father's sphere had indicated," the young summoner declared while readying her staff for battle. "I suggest that you surrender peacefully. We will be taking you to face charges for your treason."

"My treason," Seymour asked, and he then laughed like he had just heard a good joke, putting everyone on edge.

"Is it just as bad here on Spira when a defeated bad guy starts laughing as it is back home," Clint questioned of anyone who was from Spira.

"Yes, it is," Auron confirmed.

"Okay, just wanted to make sure."

"You truly don't realize that you've already lost," Seymour informed them. "There are no other higher ranking maester anymore. I've already seen to it that I am the one the highest position."

"Are you saying that…?" Lulu gasped in shock, hardly believing what she was hearing, while praying that it was just some form of cruel joke.

"Indeed I am," Seymour confirmed, dashing all of those hopes in an instant. "The Grand Maester has already been slain by my hand, along with any of his immediate successors. The only maesters remaining are all ones that are beneath my level of authority, and they all know better than to challenge me. The Heartless help see to that."

A moment later, several of the very dark creatures that Seymour mentioned materialized into existence and surrounded the group, with a few larger, more human looking versions of the Shadows, cutting Seymour free of the webs that Spider-Man had captured him in. These new versions of the Shadows, which Sora identified as Neo-Shadows then proceeded to close in on the group while making sure that none of them could get to Yuna, even as Tidus and Kimahri tried their best to break through the ranks. Before anyone could take more drastic actions to get rid of the Heartless, Seymour began to recite an incantation, calling on what was doubtlessly a powerful spell, and one by one, the guardians and Avengers all began to pass out. Tidus and Sora tried their best to stay conscious, but in the end, they were soon slipping away just like the others, unable to do anything to stop Seymour as he scooped an unconscious Yuna up over his shoulder and proceeded to flee from the Macalania Temple.

* * *

No dreams or visions came to Sora's mind this time while he was out, but a part of him almost wished that they did, because then, he might have been able to better block out the yelling that eventually woke him up. He was not sure what was being said, only that it was being said in very loud voices. At first he thought that he could not tell what the two people were saying because of how groggy he was, but as he slipped fully into the world of consciousness, he started to realize that the real reason was because the speakers were both just talking in another language that he had never heard before. Reaching that conclusion, Sora's mind immediately went back to the Al Bhed that had attacked him and his friends before, and he quickly sprang up from the bed he had found himself on, ready for another fight. It was only after he was on his feet with Keyblade in hand that he realized that there was no one to fight, and that the two voices were coming from the next room.

Thinking that his friends were in trouble and he was going to have to fight his way out, Sora immediately crashed through the door, or at least as much as he could considering that said door opened on its own, and prepared to shout for everyone to surrender, but he was quickly met with an even more confusing sight. There, standing along the hallway, were all of his fellow Avengers, Spider-Man, Gwen, and Miles, all right as rain save for the dejected looks on their faces, and without a single sign of ever being restrained. The six all quickly took notice of Sora's arrival, and seeing that he was armed, they were all immediately saying various things in an attempt to calm him down, thinking he was going to attack at any second, but really, the only thing that was on Sora's mind right now was one simple question.

"What is going on," Sora finally asked when he found a chance to speak.

"Seymour hit us with a sleep spell or something, according to Lulu, but as it turns out, we had someone ready to come in and save our skins before Seymour could send anymore Heartless or Yevon soldiers after us," Clint replied, sounding more than a little annoyed when he spoke.

"Isn't that a good thing," Sora asked.

"Yeah, it is. Hawkeye's just annoyed by the fact that the people who saved us were also the ones that attacked us when you and Yuna were heading out to Macalania Temple," Captain America revealed.

"Well there's also the fact that Rikku turned out to be an Al Bhed as well, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't play as much of a part in it as the other thing," Miles added.

Sora breathed a small sigh of relief, glad to hear that they were safe for the moment and not prisoners, but he knew that could likely change if they really were with the Al Bhed at the moment. After dealing with so many bad guys now, Sora knew better than to assume that they were safe in an enemy location, even if said enemy had done something to help them. With that said, he and the others all quickly turned to head onto the bridge, and the minute they did, the yelling Sora heard earlier ceased to be muffled, and they were all treated to the sight of Rikku arguing with both the Al Bhed leader from before, and an older, bald man that seemed to be running the show. Looking off to the side, they quickly spotted Tidus, Wakka, Lulu, Kimahri, and Auron all just watching the feud, either unsure of who to side with or just not wanting to get in the middle of it, and made their way over to the five so that they could let them know that Sora was awake. Not that they really had to say too much, as their arrival on the bridge was announced the moment that the door slid open.

"Hey sleepy-head, good to see you up and about, ya," Wakka teased Sora.

"Well what do you expect? Sora's always finding some way to take a nap no matter where he is or what he's doing," Tidus joined in just seconds later.

"Ha, ha, ha," Sora retorted in good nature. "What about you guys, are you all okay?"

"Aside from the fact that it would seem we have failed as guardians," Lulu pointed out, reminding everyone of the fact that Yuna was currently missing in action.

"Wait, what," Sora gasped in disbelief.

"By the time Rikku's family arrived, Seymour was long gone. There's little doubt that he's heading to either Bevelle or Zanarkand now in order to get whatever it is he wants," Auron revealed, and while his voice retained its usual calm, cool tone, it was clear that there was a hint of anger and a growl underneath it.

"Then we will rescue her, and defeat Seymour in the process, if we must," T'Challa decided.

"And after that, then what," a new voice interrupted, bringing everyone's attention over to the three Al Bhed who had apparently stopped arguing long enough to overhear the conversation. "You plan on taking my niece to finish her little trip to becoming a sacrificial lamb like her father and every other summoner before her?"

That surprised and confused everyone from Marvel-topia and Destiny Islands, but not to the point where they were all rendered completely silent. "No, we're going to help her defeat Sin," Tidus corrected.

"Oh yeah? And how're you going to do that, boy," the Al Bhed man questioned.

"By getting the Final Aeon of course. How else," Sora questioned.

That answer did not seem to satisfy the man, as he angrily huffed, "And here I thought you Keyblade wielders were supposed to be better than those Yevonite dogs that would rather kill off good, innocent people than try to find another way to beat that monster."

"What's that supposed to mean? I mean, no one's killing anyone innocent. We just gotta get the Final Aeon, and then Yuna can use it to destroy Sin, right," Sora asked, only to pause in his challenge when he noticed the somber looks on the faces of Yuna's guardians. "Right guys?"

When no one answered Sora's question, Wakka could not help but nervously ask, "Uh…why do I get the feeling that there's something that was left out about this whole thing?"

A minute later, everyone who was not from Spira found themselves wishing that Wakka had never asked that question, because the answer that Rikku gave them, while important, was anything but reassuring or good. "Summoners journey to get the Final Aeon, and with it, Yuna can beat Sin, but then…But then…if she calls it, then the Final Aeon's going to kill her, just like every other summoner that's ever used it! Even if she defeats Sin, it will kill Yunie too!"

* * *

 ** _AN: I'll be honest, I can't remember a time where I had ended a chapter on a character's dialogue like this. I mean, I might have, but I can't remember it right now at this time. Speaking of which, I'm sure we can all only think of one reaction to that last bit there..._**

 ** _Dun, dun, DUUUUUUUUUNNNNNN!_**

 ** _Rikku: Really?_**

 ** _AN: What? Don't tell me that it isn't appropriate. Besides, everyone who's played Final Fantasy X must have known that was going to come up at some point. Speaking of which, let's go over the details of what changed in comparison to said game's storyline, aside from the fact that Sora, the Avengers, and the Spider-Clan were present. Yes, Yuna revealed Jyscal's sphere to everyone sooner, while in the game, she kept it to herself and simply said that she intended to accept Seymour's proposal. Not a great idea, by the way. Of course, that still would've happened if Sora hadn't caught her viewing the sphere, but thankfully, he did, and with that, everyone was able to get in on planning how to help expose Seymour's crimes._**

 ** _Next change: The battle with the Al Bhed...well, the only change there was that Sora helped Yuna to duck out so she could get to the temple, but aside from that, everything went the same. Well, there's also the fact that Wakka did not get really upset over finding out that Rikku's an Al Bhed, but that's only natural seeing as in this story, he's not from Spira, so he wouldn't have any beef with the Al Bhed._**

 ** _Third Change: Sora and Spider-Man exposing Seymour for his crimes and getting it all on tape, so to speak. The man's backed into a corner, even before the rest of the team and Yuna arrive, but it turns out that anyone that they can take the evidence to is already dead and gone. In the game, they did get a chance to expose Seymour to his superiors, but it turned out that those same people were part of a larger conspiracy to keep control over Spira, and did not need to be removed by Seymour before that, and even if they did, Seymour did not see any reason to. That was kind of weird if you ask me, because if Seymour really was as committed as he seemed to be, I feel like he would've gotten rid of all the potential obstacles in his way. Also, another change from that moment was that the team did have a full battle with Seymour at Macalania Temple, which ended with the other Guado taking Seymour's dead body away before Yuna could send him, and then revealing that they were in league with Seymour just before Tromell destroys Jyscal's sphere. This time, he simply used a spell to knock everyone out and then kidnap Yuna._**

 ** _Final important change: the rescue by the Al Bhed. Yes, the team is in fact aboard the airship that Rikku's dad commanded in the game, those other two are Rikku's dad and brother, (does anyone else find it strange that the latter's name is literally Brother, or that it seems like people got lazy with naming at that point?), and yes, they had the big reveal about the consequences of a summoner's pilgrimage aboard that ship. In the original story, that reveal was given in the Al Bhed home in Bikanel Desert, before the team had gotten onto the airship, and Rikku made that reveal in a similar manner after it was revealed that the Al Bhed were kidnapping summoners to stop the pilgrimages. Only Tidus did not know about it until that point, but is it really surprising that he was not the only one left out of the loop in this version? Of course Sora and the others from Marvel-topia wouldn't know about it, but since he's from Destiny Islands like Tidus and Sora, it made sense that Wakka wouldn't know too._**

 ** _Is that everything that I needed to mention?_**

 ** _Sora: As far as the important stuff goes, yeah that about does it. Every other change falls under the minor notice. You know, aside from the changes we saw in my most recent visions._**

 ** _AN: Right, and speaking of which, the secret of that is out, and the Avengers are more than happy to help him figure out why he's getting them. Be honest, did anyone think that they wouldn't want to help him with that problem, or that they wouldn't question him about it until something like this occurred? And speaking of which, hope you all enjoyed that little peek at how the BBS Trio's journey went in this continuity, namely when they arrived on the world of Spira._**

 ** _Riku: Hey, you know I've gotta ask, have you ever thought about doing a chapter or two in this story that specifically geared towards explaining the full details of what happened to Terra, Aqua, and Ven when they were on Marvel-topia?_**

 ** _AN: Once or twice, but I feel like that would be something that I would put into a one-shot series similar to the Keyblades Unleashed Series Extras one-shot collection. Aside from that though, the only one that I've really put that much planning into would be Aqua's story, mainly because I got a lot of ideas for it from the movie Captain Marvel (really great movie, by the way, and the perfect thing to set up Avengers: Endgame if you haven't already seen it yet)._**

 ** _Oh yeah, and we do indeed have Rikku to thank for helping Spider-Man come up with Impact Webbing in this story. Pretty cool, huh? You can expect a few more Spidey gadgets to be added to the web-head's arsenal pretty soon, too, so don't think that this will be the end of those._**

 ** _Kairi: Let's not forget a very memorable Kingdom Hearts moment happened here._**

 ** _AN: Oh, right, thanks for that, Kairi. Yes, she's not wrong, as I'm sure you remember that moment from the first game when Sora saw Kairi in Merlin's house. It has definitely been way too long since we saw any sign of Sora's two best friends, especially in the case of his beloved auburn haired, Keyblade wielding princess, and I really wanted to work that particular scene in as soon as possible. When it came to this world and the matter of the entrance to the Farplane, or really any part of Guadosalam, I felt that there was no better time to bring that scene into play, and so...ta-da! Here it is! We finally saw Kairi appear in the story in person (sort of), and she finally got some dialogue in it as well. Cool, right?_**

 ** _Kairi: It'll be even cooler when I finally get some more screen time, if you ask me._**

 ** _AN: Yeah, okay, that's fair. I will do my best to get Kairi in here some more later on, so don't worry about that. You'll know when it's likely about to happen again, I can promise that. Here's something else I can also promise: it's to move Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The truth about the summoner's pilgrimage is revealed, and those who were previously unaware are left feeling distraught, upset, or just flat out angry over the fact that they had not been told before. Sure, those who did know had their reasons for not telling, but that does little to make it better. More than that, it also makes them all wonder just how Seymour could possibly think that allowing Yuna to acquire the Final Aeon would help him gain control over Sin, but that's not considered to be nearly as important as rescuing Yuna from the evil maester. Even so, Sora and Tidus are both determined to do whatever they can to stop the vile monster in a way that won't cause Yuna or anyone else to die, and the rest of their friends and teammates are all right there with them in the hopes of achieving that goal. Just what could they do to stop Sin, though? How will Seymour's plans play into all of that? And when the final battle to save Spira commences, just what consequences will unfold afterwards? The conclusion to the journey through Spira is here at last, in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Yeah, we're aiming to make the next chapter the conclusion to the Spira arc, and from the look of things, there will be more than just changes to the Final Fantasy X story in it. Wait, why am I saying that it just looks like that? I know it's going to be like that. Oh well, either way, you know what to expect for next time, so for now..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	12. Freedom For Spira

**_AN: And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time at last for the conclusion of the Spira Adventure Arc, in the newest exciting chapter of Hearts of Avengers!_**

 ** _[audience applause]_**

 ** _Yeah, you'd better be excited, especially after that cliffhanger we left off on, but don't worry, that'll be resolved quickly enough, while a lot of other questions are answered as well, much like some of the big questions we had regarding a certain MCU movie just recently were._**

 ** _Sora: I'm guessing you've recently seen Avengers: Endgame?_**

 ** _AN: Uh, YEAH! THAT MOVIE WAS SO EPIC THAT "EPIC" DOESN'T EVEN FEEL LIKE THE BEST WORD TO DESCRIBE IT! The big moments, the awesome scenes, the final battle! That movie now features my absolute favorite scene in all the MCU movies, btw! Not to mention...Oops, I almost gave a pretty big spoiler there, and I really don't want to do that._**

 ** _Spider-Man: I can't help but wonder how that's going to affect some of your other stories/series in the future, like a certain Star Wars crossover that you're doing which hasn't been updated._**

 ** _AN: Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there and tell you the exact same thing that I'm about to tell all my reviewers that have been posting things that basically just say "update 'this story' soon please." I'll get each of my stories updated when they're good and ready. And when I don't likely have mostly Disney stuff on my mind (especially in the case of Kingdom Hearts), along with Marvel based stuff, and since this story has both of those in abundance, guess which story is likely getting a lot of attention for a while. But don't worry, I will get back to my other stories soon. It'll just be a while before I update something that doesn't have some ties to Kingdom Hearts, or something similar to that._** ** _Sorry if that sounds a little harsh, but it does get a little annoying after a while when I'm only reading reviews that just say things like "Please update soon", or a less polite version of that, and even more so when it's a request for a completely different story._**

 ** _Now, with my rant done for the day, let's move on to the regular review answers, shall we?_**

 ** _First off to "Dragon Rider 66", I guess the simplest way to explain Sora seeing Terra and Aqua in those visions would be to say...blame the D-Link ability. From my understanding, that power draws from the connections one has in their heart with others, and since Ventus's connection to Terra and Aqua are strongest, it would make sense that he would use his D-Link to them more than anyone else, so in a way, Sora's seeing what happened to Terra and Aqua because of how strong Ven's ties to them are. Hope that makes sense. I haven't actually considered doing TV shows that were specific to other worlds like you had suggested, but it is an idea to consider. And thanks for the show recommendation. I might just look into it when I next get a chance._**

 ** _To the guest reviewer "Johnathen", I don't really have any plans for Sora to travel through time in this series, aside from when the Avengers deal with Kang the Conqueror (obviously), but as for Stan Lee cameos, you can rest easy knowing that will in fact happen. Like I'm really going to write a Marvel story/series that doesn't have Stan the Man showing up for a cameo in at least one of those stories/chapters._**

 ** _Next up is to "One Nutty Author", glad you like this story so much so far. As for other Marvel heroes Sora will meet, I can't really say that there's much of a chance he'll run into the Inhumans (or at least, any besides Daisy), but I do plan to introduce Sora to the mutants' side of the Marvel universe at some point later on in this story, and at least imply that he's come into contact with the Fantastic Four, but that may be a little hard since the Four are almost never home. As for your question about Doom, you have to keep in mind that he usually keeps to himself for the most part in EMH, and even in other series that are not about the Fantastic Four, at least from my experience, he doesn't really come into the middle of things unless he believes he should. (The exception being that Super Hero Squad Show of course). Maybe he is looking into things regarding the Keyblade, maybe he isn't. You'll just have to wait and see just what all I'll have him cooking up, but I wouldn't expect much from ol' Victor Von Doom just yet._**

 ** _To the guest reviewer "Guest" of 4/11/2019, I think that when you consider the things he managed to do in Kingdom Hearts canon, it's pretty clear how powerful Xehanort really is, but if you're referring to how powerful he is in this story...well, that answer will come when we reach the third story of this series._**

 ** _Yuffie: You've got a plans for a third story already?!_**

 ** _AN: You say that like you're surprised. Now to "warrior of six blades", yeah Tony would probably not have much to say about Sora's visions just yet, but he would definitely have a huge tangent about Spira's opinion of modern technology, especially when you consider that he would more than likely be wearing his armor when they appeared on Spira, assuming he was present and suited up when Sora zapped the group away._**

 ** _"GuestWithIdeas", I like your suggestion in having Shuri help examine Sora to find out the source of his visions, and while I do intend to have Shuri show up again later on in the story, I'm afraid it won't be for that reason. Sorry, but I do like the suggestion for Yuffie's codename, and I think I might be able to build something up from that._**

 ** _"Spiderfan626", glad you enjoyed seeing Kairi's first appearance in the main story, more or less, and I'm right there with you on being eager for the sequels to those games. I just really hope that they're as good as the games that came before them. And in the case of the KH3 sequel, (not 4 but the tie-in), I hope we get some clue on what happened to Sora and that they find a way to pull him back, or at least come close to bringing him back before KH4. And that we see Kairi in a more active role, too, like say...as a playable character that doesn't get turned into a damsel in distress! Yeah, I'm looking at you guys, KH Creative Team!_**

 ** _Rounding it on over to "darinpasillas4", for now, Sora's going to be stuck with just Kingdom Key, so I wouldn't expect him to be getting any new Keyblades in this story. More than likely, he'll get his first new Keyblades in the sequel to this story, so sorry if you were hoping for something like that to come sooner. Glad that you're enjoying the story so far._**

 ** _Finally to "CT7567Rules", whatever you think works best for that, by all means, go for it._**

 ** _Okay, I think that covers everything I wanted to address, so let's get on with the main show. It's going to be really packed with all kinds of action, drama, fun, and even a little romance too this time, so why are you still reading this when you could be reading the story itself?_**

 ** _T'Challa: Perhaps they are hoping that they will learn something of great significance like how when the Masters of Evil finally attack, Sora will..._**

 ** _AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits the control]_**

 ** _T'Challa: Oh dear. [suddenly gets slammed into by a large, swinging tree log, and is sent catapulting out of the room]_**

 ** _AN: Phew! That was close. Never thought I'd have to use one of those gags on T'Challa of all people, but as they say everything's relative. Avengers, to the chapter!..._**

 ** _I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter XII**

The entire room was silent, save for the small noises that were coming from the machines around them, and the small whimpers of sadness that Rikku was making, but considering what she just said, no one could blame them. How was someone supposed to respond after hearing that a noble quest their friend was taking to save the world was apparently going to end with said friend's death? Looking over to the Spirans that they had been traveling with, the heroes of Midgard and the Destiny Islanders all saw looks of sorrow and shame on each of their faces that proved that they all knew about this, and that got each of them a little riled up. They all had to wonder why the three would allow Yuna to go through with something that would kill her. Though that was not as confusing as to why Rikku would allow her cousin to go through with a pilgrimage if she knew that it would result in Yuna's death, especially if it upset her this much.

After a few more minutes, Miles could not take the silence anymore and said, "Okay, hold on. Are you seriously telling us that…all this time we've been helping with this pilgrimage, we've basically just…we've been just keeping Yuna alive so that she can die at the proper moment like a lamb for slaughter?"

"Here's a better question for you, boy: are you telling me that you didn't know about this," the Al Bhed man asked.

"Vydran," Rikku snapped in return, almost sounding like she was scolding him, but that was as far as she got with that.

"No, we didn't, because if we did, we wouldn't have been helping out unless Yuna intended to try and do something that would make sure she would live," Spider-Man had interjected.

"As far as we knew, she did not have any such plan," Lulu somberly revealed, but no matter how sad she sounded, it did not save her or any of her allies from the heroes' wrath.

"And you let her go through with this anyway?! I thought you were supposed to be like family to her or something. What kind of person would let someone that important to them throw their life away like that," Hawkeye angrily demanded.

"Don't you think we tried to stop her," Lulu snapped back, startling the archer a bit with her fury. "Yuna follows her heart. I begged and pleaded with her to not take on summoner training, but she insisted that she knew what she was doing. No matter what I said, Yuna intended to follow through on her decision, even if we disagreed. The only thing I could do at that point was become her guardian."

"I was the same way," Auron revealed, turning everyone's attention to him. "I had already been forced to watch as Yuna's father gave his life battling Sin. The only thing that hurt more than realizing that his calm was not the final one was when I learned that his daughter intended to follow in his footsteps. All that I could do was become her guardian, and hope that we would find another way to stop Sin before she was forced to use the Final Aeon."

"It's still wrong," Gwen snapped, startling everyone even more than Lulu had earlier. "People shouldn't have to sacrifice themselves just so others can be happy. No one should be forced into something just to make sure that another person is safe, even if it means they have to go through any kind of pain."

"I do agree, but I doubt that we really have too much of place to question this," T'Challa pointed out. "I understand the pain you all feel, having seen my own father go through a similar trial before he was struck down by a terrible villain, but if there is truly no other way, then I am certain that Yuna and every other summoner would do whatever it takes to protect their home, and bring peace and joy to their people, even if it meant their lives. It is a burden that I can relate to as a king of Wakanda."

"That doesn't change anything, and it doesn't give someone the right to push others around like this, Harry," Gwen snapped, only to flinch back as she realized the verbal slip she had just made. Everyone could only stare in startled shock and disbelief at what the blonde just said, until Gwen felt she could not take their stares anymore and just ran from the room, with Peter preparing to go after her.

He was stopped short though when he felt someone place a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see Captain America had stopped him. "Let her go for now, son. I think she needs a moment to herself right now," Steve advised. He then returned his gaze to the others as he added, "Right now, we have much more pressing matters at hand: rescuing Yuna, stopping Seymour and the Heartless, and finding a way to put an end to Sin's rampages for good that doesn't involve sacrificing others."

"What do you think we've been doing, boy," the Al Bhed that Rikku called Vydran asked. "All Al Bhed have been searching for a way to permanently stop Sin for ages, even before my niece went and became a summoner, but most of our methods have only earned us labels like heathen and scum from those Yevonites that drove us from our home."

"Unfortunately, the list of ideas that these two numbskulls came up with involved just kidnapping summoners and stuffing them into an underground bunker for their protection, which I'm told them was a bad idea over and over again," Rikku stated with a pointed look.

"Hey now, don't be takin' that tone with your father, young lady," Rikku's dad warned.

"Yldiymmo, e's cdyndehk du drehg cra syo ryja ryt y buehd, Vydran," the other Al Bhed who shared a resemblance to both Rikku and her dad said.

"Um…what did he say," Peter questioned.

"Brother's basically saying that he agrees with me," Rikku simplified.

At that point, a loud bang reached everyone's ears, and made them turn to see Tidus was punching against the wall as hard as he could with the beginnings of tears in his eyes. "I can't believe…I can't believe how stupid I must've sounded," the boy moaned as he kept hitting the wall. "I didn't know…I didn't know a damn thing, and…And I've been telling Yuna… 'Let's go to Zanarkand together! Let's beat Sin!' I told her all the things we could…we could…and all along, I never knew anything! But Yuna just…She'd just smile."

No one could be certain on what they could say to help the boy get through the sorrow he was clearly feeling, even when Wakka moved to pat his friend on the back, even if it was in weak reassurance, because clearly the Blitzball player was feeling almost as upset as Tidus was. Eventually, Wakka did think of something to say, but he was not sure if he should be saying it. That did not stop him though, because he felt like it needed to be said. "I can't really blame her or yourself for that, ya? I mean, didn't Yuna once say that summoners and their guardians are supposed to be like Spira's ray of hope, and that she learned to practice smiling even when she was feeling sad? She said that she wanted her journey to be full of smiles and happiness, so I can't say that I blame her for avoiding this topic."

"That doesn't make it any better, Wakka," Tidus shouted as he pushed his friend off, looking like he was ready to slug someone. "We can't just…I can't let her die."

"And she won't," Sora determined, making all the attention shift once again, this time onto him again so that everyone could see his determination in full. "I promise, we'll find Yuna, and then you can apologize for anything you said that may have upset her, or really just all the things you guys said without knowing any better."

"Yeah, and what about after that," Rikku's father asked.

"Simple: we'll stop Seymour, seal the Keyhole, and beat Sin without having to sacrifice anyone," Sora replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I may not know how we're gonna do it, but I know there is a way, and we'll find it, together. After all, that's what heroes do. We save the world without letting anyone else die, including our own teammates."

"You really think it's gonna be that easy?"

"I never said that it would be, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Besides, you can make it easier by helping us out," Sora easily countered with a smile that shone with certainty.

Apparently the Keybearer's positive attitude was enough to make everyone slowly start smiling as well, because that was exactly what happened soon after, with Rikku, Kimahri, and Lulu all having shimmers of gratitude in their eyes as they gazed upon Sora. Tidus and Wakka were both soon standing on either side of their friend as the former said, "If Sora says we can make it happen, then we'll make it happen. No Destiny Islander worth their salt would ever go back on a promise to help their friends, and I don't plan on being the first."

"That goes double for me, man," Wakka nodded in agreement.

Rikku's father looked at the three for another few seconds before he finally let out a huff of humor and said, "I like these boys." He then marched over and patted each of them on the shoulder as he said, "Don't any of you forget those words, 'cause if you do…I'll make all three of you regret it."

"We won't, old man," Tidus promised on all of their behalf, while Sora and Wakka both just nodded, feeling that it was better to just leave it at that. After all, not a single person here was more determined to save Yuna and keep her alive than Tidus.

"Hey! Watch that 'old man' stuff. The name's Cid, so don't forget it," the man stated in response with a nod and he then said something to Brother in Al Bhed before he moved over to the large sphere in the middle of the room, with the others following his every movement with his eyes. "All right, let's get to it then," Cid declared. "We've gotta hurry if we're gonna catch up with them."

"Does that mean you know where Seymour and Yuna are," Tidus asked.

"'Course not! That's why we're gonna go look using this airship," Cid replied.

"I'm sorry, did he just say that we're going to look using… _this_ airship," Miles asked, only to stumble a little as the room shook around them.

Looking to the front, everyone saw that Brother was seated at the main controls, and the view outside the large window suddenly began to move, proving once and for all that they had in fact been standing inside of a large vessel of some kind. "Vydran, nayto du suja uid," Brother reported.

"Yeehaa! Let's get going then," Cid declared, and a second later, everyone watched as they saw the cliffs around Macalania Temple move away in favor of the vast, clear skies above Spira.

As she took in the amazed expressions of her friends, Rikku could not help but smirk as she said, "Hey, don't look so surprised. After all, building new machina and reconstructing the old ones is a specialty of any Al Bhed, and that's especially so for my family."

No one could argue with that, as most of the group was much more inclined to enjoy the smooth ride that they were now undertaking. Hawkeye, T'Challa, and Steve remained impassive to the whole thing, mainly since they had all been on either a Quinjet, one of Wakanda's jets, or the Helicarrier quite a few times in their lives now, but Sora and the rest of the kids were definitely enjoying themselves a fair deal. Still, it did not stop the odd gaze that Cap adopted as he looked out the window. Sora knew the reason for the super soldier's look, but he was not quite fast enough to explain when he realized that others were beginning to notice as well.

"You okay, Cap," Miles asked.

"Fine, Miles," Steve reassured him. "Just…still getting used to things like this. After all, in my day, if something went this high, we didn't call it an airship,"

"What did you call it in your day then," Lulu asked, honestly curious about the fact, since she was still rather curious about the folks from Marvel-topia ever since they had explained more about their respective stories.

"Science fiction," Sora and Steve simultaneously answered, making the super soldier turn to see the boy grinning at him in good humor, while the others could not help but laugh a little.

Even through all of that humor, Peter was still worried about Gwen. Not that you could blame him, seeing as she was both his childhood friend and so much more. With that in mind, it only made sense that he would ignore what Steve had said earlier and gone after her, believing that the last thing Gwen needed right now was to be left alone. Of course, that also prevented him from realizing that Sora had noticed his departure and started following after him as quietly as possible.

* * *

After fleeing from the bridge, Gwen had just been sitting in the hallway, looking down at the floor with a sad, despondent look on her face. Though in point of fact, she was not actually sad, but she was rather upset with herself. She had not meant to let anything slip out like that, and she had done her very best to keep her secret hidden even if her emotions did get the best of her, but in that moment, with all the hard truths and heavy feelings that had been permeating through the room at the time, she had slipped up and nearly revealed what she had been trying so hard to keep secret from everyone, be they friends or family. She was not sure what most of the others would have thought, but she had no doubt that Peter had likely started drawing up more than a few conclusions, some of which may have been close to if not completely accurate. That worried her more than anything else, because she knew that if Peter knew the truth, he would probably have tried to blame himself for the whole mess, or tried to fix everything by himself, and this was definitely not Peter's fault, nor was it his mess to fix. Still, there was no changing what had happened, and it was only all the worse in her eyes that some of her other friends from Midtown had heard that near confession as well, so there was no telling how they were going to react to all of this. In this moment of self-pity, she did not quite realize that she never even realized that one such friend was actually approaching her at that very moment, until he was standing right next to her.

"You know, Cap said that it would be a good idea to leave you on your own for a minute," Peter said as he came to sit beside the blonde with a soft, caring smile in full view since he had removed his mask earlier. He felt that it would only get in the way of the talk they were about to have, and besides, he had been wearing it for a little too long for comfort anyway.

"Did you think that he might have been on to something," Gwen questioned as she tried to turn away, not wanting to look her friend in the eye.

"Maybe, but then again, he doesn't know you that well. Not like me, at least," Peter shrugged in response, partly out of humor and partly out of seriousness. Even though his comment did get a small smile out of Gwen, it did not stop Peter from dropping all humor completely and taking a seat next to the one girl he cared about more than anyone else when he next spoke. "Gwen, what's going on? Really?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Gwen tried to refute. She knew that it was most likely pointless, but she could not help but try and deny that she was having any problems at the moment.

"Do I really need to point out why that lie wouldn't work on me," Peter asked, proving Gwen's point with just that sentence. "There's no way you would've gotten that worked up like that and said Harry's name in the heat of the moment for no reason, so what's wrong? Please, just let me at least try to help."

Gwen kept silent, still not looking at Peter for the sake of hiding any shame that she might have felt, and in an attempt to keep herself from seeing any kind of hurt or anger in Peter's face. That proved to be futile, because Peter was soon gently turning her face towards his after cupping her chin with one hand, and when she finally locked eyes with Peter, Gwen saw nothing but the kind, caring, beautiful brown eyes she had always known to be his. It did not stop with those feelings though, because the minute her eyes had locked with his, something else seemed to flare up in those eyes, and Gwen was sure that the very same thing was now apparent in her eyes too as she continued to gaze upon the spider hero. Neither of them were sure what happened next or who moved first, but eventually, their staring led them to start leaning closer together, eyes slowly slipping into a half-lidded state, until finally, a far too familiar sensation greeted them both as their lips met in a gentle, sweet kiss that set off more fireworks than a New York Fourth of July could ever have. Even through all of those fireworks and the storm of emotions that was raging between them, they still kept the kiss gentle, with Peter eventually cupping one hand behind her head, while Gwen lightly grasped the front of his shirt before snaking her arms around his neck. Eventually, they did get to be a little more feverish, and rapid with Gwen thinking she was likely about to shove her tongue into Peter's mouth, or maybe that was Peter's tongue trying to get into hers, but quite frankly, neither of them knew or cared. All that mattered to them was each other. There was nothing else. No other worlds, no Avengers, no friends, no complications.

It was actually that last thought that finally made Gwen break off the kiss, pulling away so fast that you would think she had just been burned by something incredibly hot. "No," Gwen stuttered. "N-no, I shouldn't have done that. We shouldn't have done that."

"I-I know. I'm sorry," Peter quickly apologized, now feeling horrible about the whole thing and like he had just forced Gwen into that little…moment. That did not last though, because after a pregnant, silent pause, Peter finally said, "I am sorry, but…I'm not entirely sure if…if I regret it."

"Peter," Gwen started to say, but she did not get much farther than that.

"No, Gwen. I meant what I said months ago, and I still mean it now. You're the one I want to be with. You mean more to me than anyone or anything in the world. Be it this one, ours, or any other," Peter insisted as gently as he could. "I just…I need you to know that, and how that's the reason why I can't stand to see you hurt or upset for any reason."

That got a light blush onto Gwen's face, along with a genuine smile that Peter had not seen for a long time, hence part of the reason why his heart seemed to skip a few beats at the sight of said smile, and she was about to tell him how sweet it was of him to say that, until a new voice cut into their moment. "Oh that's it! I give up," the unknown viewer groaned loudly, making both Midtown seniors jump a little farther apart as they spun around to see a very frustrated looking Sora almost glaring at them both from down the hall. "Seriously, what is with you guys?! You both obviously like each other as way more than friends, but neither of you have done anything to act on it! I know that some stuff had happened last year that made things rocky between you, but that doesn't mean you should try and act like there was nothing there in the first place. Hell, you can't act like that, especially when you have moments like that, so what is the deal with you?!"

"It's…It's complicated, Sora," Peter tried to say, but his argument did not seem to hold any weight at all. Be it in his ears, or Sora's.

"You want complicated? How about we go over everything that I'm having to deal with since I first came to Marvel-topia, or even before that when I got this glorified hunk of metal," Sora retorted, summoning Kingdom Key into his hand on the last bit so he could emphasize his point. He did make sure to send a quick apology to his Keyblade for the remark, but that did not stop him from pressing on in his rant. "What you guys have is clear as day and way more simple, so how could it possibly be complicated?"

"In case you forgot, Sora, I have a boyfriend for one," Gwen reminded him, almost sounding angry for a few seconds. That died down a little when she then added, "At least…I think I do, but some days, I'm not so sure if Harry really is my boyfriend, or to be more accurate…if he really sees me as his girlfriend."

That got Sora's righteous fury to die down, and drew his and Peter's attention fully onto the blonde so that she could see their confusion at her words. Neither one of them was really sure if they wanted to know the answer to the obvious question, but Peter still asked it anyway. Something just told him that they needed to hear this. "What do you mean by that?"

Gwen did not say anything at first, apparently trying to steal her resolve for what she was about to say and/or do, but when she finally had, she slowly reached up and undid the scarf that had somehow remained firmly in place around her neck even in the chaos of all that they had been doing since arriving on Spira. When she did, both Peter and Sora gasped in shock at the clear impression of red finger marks around her neck, indicating that someone had recently wrapped their hands around Gwen's neck very roughly at some point before hand, and with the way Gwen was tearing up, they had a hunch that it was none of the bad guys that they had been fighting.

"Oh my god, Gwen," Peter gasped as Sora rushed over, intending to use a healing spell to remove the bruise. "What happened?"

Gwen wanted to flinch away as Sora began to cast his spell, but ultimately stayed right where she was, knowing that it would be useless to resist the younger boy's kind actions. Instead, she just breathed deeply again and replied, "This is…This is what happened when I told Harry about our study group. Or more accurately, when I mentioned that you would be a part of the study group, Pete."

Hearing that and seeing this most recent bruise was all that Sora needed to fit a few more pieces of the puzzle together, and he could not stop himself from announcing his conclusion aloud for all three of them. "Harry's the one who did this to you, and who gave you that bruise on your arm from the other day."

"Yes…He was," Gwen confirmed, sadly. "I don't know why, but every time Peter's name comes up, Harry just seems to…fly off the handle, or something. At best, he'll go on what seems like just a jealous rant about Peter, sometimes he'll even go so far as to accuse me of horrible things like being unfaithful, sleeping around, or just being with him for my own gain, but at worst…well, you've now seen two examples of what happens from that."

"He hasn't done anything worse to you, has he," Peter asked, now extremely worried for Gwen. Harry may have been his best friend, but if the sole heir to the Osborn legacy had done anything especially harmful to Gwen, or even attempted to try something that bad, Peter was pretty sure that any such feelings would be out the door, consequences be damned.

"No! Thank God, no," Gwen immediately reassured him, grasping his hand in hers with a few gentle rubs along his knuckles to better reassure Peter. "He usually comes to his senses before he can try something too drastic, usually because of me or someone else, but Harry's just…I don't know what's going on with him. At first it was just angry words and outbursts, and I figured it was just his way of coping with the loss of his dad, but as it got worse, even after all this time…"

"So then why are you still with him," Sora asked. It was obvious to him that Gwen did not care for Harry or the way he treated her, so he could not help but wonder why she did not just end things with him.

This time, Gwen and Peter shared a brief, hesitant look before the former finally said, "Like Peter said, it's complicated."

"Try me," Sora challenged as he dismissed Kingdom Key, having finished working his healing magic.

After one last exchange of looks, Peter and Gwen sighed and decided to finally come clean with the whole story. "Well, let's start with this," Peter began. "How much do you know about Harry, Sora?"

"Not that much," Sora shrugged. "Just that he's supposed to be your best friend, Gwen's boyfriend for whatever reason, that his dad was killed several months back, and that he left Midtown so that he could get a better education for when he takes over his family's company or something. Why?"

"Well, that's probably going to make this take a little longer then," Gwen sighed. "You see, last year, Harry was on Midtown's football team, but what most people didn't know was that he was playing while juiced."

"While what," Sora asked in confusion, having never heard the term before.

"It means that he was using drugs to help him play better," Peter clarified for Sora. "When word got out, a lot of people were really upset with Harry for a long time, but what most people don't know is just what drug he was using. It was an experimental performance enhancer that Oscorp designed called Globulin Green, and a really addictive one at that. Sure, it made Harry stronger, faster, and somewhat smarter, but at the same time, it also caused him to have some really bad blackouts. The worst part was that, during those blackouts…it looked like he became the Green Goblin."

"What," Sora gasped in shock. He had heard about that particular villain from old news articles, and how Green Goblin had contended with Spider-Man many times before he eventually died in one final battle against the web-swinger. A battle that ran across nearly all of New York, but Sora never would have guessed that the villain could have been Peter's best friend. "Are you kidding?"

"I wish I was," Peter admitted. "I first found out about this last Halloween after what I had thought would be my final battle with the Goblin. I had followed him back to the Oscorp penthouse, only to find Harry pulling himself out of the suit, and with a leg injury that I saw the Goblin receive after he had crashed down on a rooftop. His dad walked in a moment later, and we all agreed to keep it to ourselves, and send Harry away to get the help we thought he would need, with the Goblin disappearing forever, never to be seen again. We thought that was the end of it, until last spring."

"What do you mean? What happened," Sora asked, not that he was really sure that he needed to, but he did feel like he was going to lose his voice if he did not speak up every few minutes or so from listening to this story.

"Goblin resurfaced, and for a while, I'm guessing that Peter thought it was Harry under the mask, after likely having fallen back into his addiction. It certainly lined up with how Harry had disappeared without a trace a short time before that," Gwen explained, earning a nod of confirmation from Peter at her guess. "But then, one night, Harry showed up on my doorstep asking for help. He told me the whole story about what had happened up until Halloween, and later Peter, who obviously already knew, but what we didn't know was that the reason that he had been missing was because Harry had been kidnapped by the Green Goblin, or someone that was dressed up like him and using Goblin's tech."

"Gwen thought that Harry's dad could help him figure out what had been going on, but I wasn't so sure," Peter continued. "Before I found Harry in the suit, I had thought that Norman Osborn was the Goblin, after seeing Gobby fly up to the Oscorp penthouse and then disappear seconds before Norman showed his face from the place's wine cellar. It definitely made sense in a way, given how Gobby's arsenal was made up of tech that had been stolen from Oscorp, thefts that were likely staged to throw off suspicion, so I made it a point to swing by and be on the scene as Spider-Man when Harry confronted his dad."

"Obviously, Peter didn't expect to learn that witnesses had seen Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin together during one of Goblin's break-ins at Oscorp, or for the Goblin to attack him, Harry, and Norman while they were all in the penthouse together," Gwen added on. "That had basically led to a whole thing that had Pete and the Osborns scrambling to figure out who the Goblin really was, and why he had set up Harry to take the blame."

"Which eventually led to Spidey's final face-off with Goblin, right," Sora cottoned on.

"Bingo," Peter confirmed. "And in that fight, it turned out that my first guess was right: Norman Osborn was the man under the Green Goblin suit. He had sent us on a whole chase as a way of setting things up for his final victory against me, and so that he could finally rule over all crime in New York unopposed. He had already gotten all of the other competitors out of the way, so there was not really anything left to stop him except me. It didn't help that he was also taking what he thought was a safer version of Globulin Green to enhance his abilities to the point where he was able to keep up with me."

"But that doesn't make sense. If it really was Norman Osborn, then how did Harry end up in the Goblin suit with that injury," Sora asked.

"Well for one thing, it turned out that the leg injury I saw him take had been faked as a way of him trying to throw off suspicion. I'm not entirely sure if Harry was originally part of his plan, but when he got home, he did find Harry passed out from an overdose of the green, and that made it easier for him to get Harry into the suit. As for the limp…well…" Peter explained, though he trailed off at the end, clearly not able to really say it due to how upset the idea seemed to make him, assuming the way he was shaking in anger was any indication.

"He framed his own son, and hurt him just to make it all that more convincing," Sora gasped in angry disbelief.

"Yeah, and he had the gall to say that he did it to 'make a man out of Harry,'" Peter replied, clearly just as angry. "Said that he 'did it out of love.' You ask me, the man wouldn't have known love even if it blew up his glider."

Gwen quickly placed her hand on Peter's shoulder, hoping to calm him down before his anger made him lash out, and it seemed to work, because Peter was soon calm again, but he still allowed Gwen to continue from where he left off. "In the end, Peter's final attack caused Norman to fall into a vat of his own explosives, killing him in the process."

"Not that I meant to. I did try to stop him from falling in, but everything was happening so fast, and I was basically like one big bruise at that point, acting on instinct, that by the time I was about to try to save him from falling in, it was already too late," Peter quickly reassured Sora. Not that the Keybearer felt that Peter really needed to; he already had a very good idea of what kind of person Peter was, so Sora knew that Peter would never have intentionally tried to kill someone.

"At the funeral, Harry was clearly upset and promised that Spider-Man was going to pay for what he had done, and he then confessed to me that I was the only thing keeping him together and from backsliding into his addiction again, even though he had already destroyed his stash so that he wouldn't succumb," Gwen finally revealed. "I had been planning on breaking up with Harry so that Pete and I could be together, but after I heard that, and knowing the state that Harry was in at the time…I just couldn't do it, especially if what he said was true."

It was all out in the open now. Every question he had about Peter's self-imposed isolation from others, about why Gwen was not with Peter despite how obvious her feelings for him were, and every other mystery surrounding these two since he had met them was finally revealed. Even with these revelations though, Sora was still pretty upset, because quite frankly, he hated the conclusion to that story. "And Peter said I was a smart yet stupid kid," the Keybearer started, startling both Midtown seniors with that one comment. "Gwen, I get that you didn't want to stop dating him at that time, given that Harry was hurting and needed people who cared about him, but that was months ago, and from the sound of things, he hasn't gotten better. He's only gotten worse, right?"

"Well…yes, but…" Gwen started to say.

"But nothing," Sora interrupted. "If Harry's acting like this then staying with him is only going to end up leading to something bad for both of you. What if the next fit he has causes him to do something really bad to you, and Harry can't stop himself before it's too late. Harry could end up hating himself and backsliding into an even worse addiction than before."

"He's got a bit of a point," Peter slowly agreed. "Ever since he left Midtown, if not since his dad's funeral, Harry's not been himself, and it's definitely not just grief that was causing it. If he's hurting you, who knows what else he's been doing, to himself or to others. Maybe…maybe he needs a little more help than we realized, and I don't think we can give it to him by having you stay with him."

Gwen fell silent at that point, though neither boy was sure what she was thinking in that moment. That changed when they heard her sniffle a little, and Peter was quick to move closer and wrap his arms around her as tightly as he could. "I just…I don't know what else I can do," Gwen cried as a few tears began to fall.

"I do," Sora stated, making both her and Peter turn around to see him smiling. "The same thing I should've done when I started having visions of the past, and that Peter said I should do. Trust your friends to have your back and help out in any way that they can. You're not alone, Gwen, so don't try to do everything by yourself as if you were."

"He's right you know. I mean, weren't you just saying something similar not that long ago? I think it sounded a lot like swallowing your Stacy Pride and letting others help out," Peter added on, taking a bit of a moment to tease his old friend.

Gwen could only let out a brief laugh at her friend's attempt at turning her words against her, and after drying her eyes she gave both boys a quick nod, showing that she was more than willing to accept any help they could give her. Seeing that gesture of acceptance, Peter immediately pulled Gwen into another tight hug, and this time, she happily reciprocated, not wanting to let go or leave the comfortable feeling of being in Peter's arms for so much as one second, while Sora just glanced around the room with a quiet cough, suddenly feeling a little awkward from having to watch the two clearly starting to share a moment.

That moment was soon killed when Hawkeye suddenly walked over and announced, "Hey, if you kids are done with your little soap opera, you might want to get up here. We've found Seymour and Yuna, and I don't think Tidus is willing to wait forever before we finally go after them."

The three all exchanged a nod at that, and quickly followed the archer back up to the bridge, each of them now feeling better than ever, and with a new fire inside that promised they would be ready for anything that would come in the next confrontation with Seymour, and whatever would come after that.

* * *

"About time you guys got here," Tidus said to Sora, Peter, Gwen, and Hawkeye as they entered the bridge, and the Keybearer could have sworn that there was more than a hint of impatient scolding in his voice.

"Hey, we're here now, aren't we," Peter shrugged, making it a point to keep quiet about the little confessional time that he and Sora had with Gwen before. He knew that his friend would rather tell everyone else about this in her own time, if she ever decided to do so, a fact that Gwen clearly realized and appreciated judging by her smile. "So where's our bad guy?"

"Believe it or not, he's takin' Yuna to Zanarkand," Cid revealed, surprising some of the people in the room. "Some of our friends on the ground reported seeing him heading up Mount Gagazet just a short time ago, and they caught sight of someone carrying a person that could only be Yuna over their shoulder a fair distance up the mountain."

"If Yuna's still unconscious or so obviously in danger, the Ronso would never have let Seymour pass," Lulu suddenly argued.

"Ronso? You mean like Kimahri," Miles questioned.

"Mount Gagazet is Ronso homeland. Ronso guard sacred mountain for generations, acting as protectors of mountain. Ronso only allow summoners and guardians on pilgrimage to pass. No one else allowed on sacred mountain," Kimahri explained.

"Which means we may have a chance to catch up," Captain America realized. "If Kimahri's people won't allow anyone other than summoners and their guardians up the mountain, then the other Ronso are likely going to do whatever they can to keep Seymour from getting through until we can catch up."

"That would be true, if that chance hadn't already come and gone," Rikku said with a sad inflection to her voice, grabbing everyone's attention, but none more so than Kimahri. For a minute, the girl did not say anymore than that, but eventually she did turn a sad look up to her Ronso friend and said, "I'm sorry, Kimahri, but…when our people reached the base of the mountain they…they found several Heartless and a lot of dead bodies. Ronso bodies. Any Ronso that were still alive were really young and scared, all saying the same thing. Seymour killed them or had the Heartless kill them for him. There's barely any Ronso left on the mountain now."

Hearing this dropped a heavy, shocked silence over everyone in the room. Even the people who were not native to Spira had come to learn that the Ronso were some of, if not _the_ most powerful warriors on Spira, and hearing that Seymour and the Heartless had slain so many in the brief amount of time that they had to take to find Yuna was certainly scary. More than that, it was also incredibly tragic, as that meant that a good number of Kimahri's people were now gone forever, so they could only imagine how the cat-like man was feeling right now. Turning to the Ronso in question, no one could do anything but look on in sadness as Kimahri processed what he had just heard, looking far more shocked and sad than any of them had ever seen him look before. That sadness soon gave way to anger though, as Kimahri's whole body began trembling, his fists clenched to the point where he was drawing blood from his palms, and finally, he let out a loud, angry roar that made everyone clamp their ears shut as hard as they could, while the ship itself seemed to shake a little under the sound of his sorrowful rage.

"Seymour pay for crimes against Ronso! Kimahri promise this on Kimahri's honor as Ronso," Kimahri roared loudly, looking like he was ready to jump out of the ship and chase after Seymour on foot as he reached back to draw his spear.

"Hey, easy big fella! Don't worry; we'll get him together," Miles promised as he placed a hand on Kimahri's arm, praying that the Ronso would not push him off since that would likely result in him getting thrown into a wall. "Seymour's going to answer for everything, including this."

Kimahri took a minute to calm down, until he finally nodded to Miles and the others in response to the boy's words, and while some of them wanted to give Kimahri a moment to grieve for his people, the others all knew that they still had an important job to do if they really wanted to avenge the Ronso and save Spira. Auron made that point clear when he stepped up. "Where is Seymour now?"

"Where do you think he is? If he ain't at Zanarkand's doorstep right now, they I'm a damned Yevonite, myself," Cid replied.

"Vydran," Brother gasped in response to that.

"What? It's just a figure of speech, boy," Cid reassured his oldest son and pilot.

"Then that is where we need to go," T'Challa determined, getting the conversation back on track. "We will rescue Yuna and put an end to Seymour and his crimes there."

"Why would Seymour take Yuna to Zanarkand in the first place though," Wakka asked. "I mean, all that taking Yuna there will do is help her to get the Final Aeon, and if Seymour wants to take control of Sin, why would he want Yuna to get something that would destroy it?"

"Maybe he wants her to have it so that he can better control Sin? You know, like how some folks will use a spray bottle on a disobedient dog," Miles suggested.

"I wouldn't have used that analogy myself, but that does seem pretty close to the most likely scenario. If Sin knows someone has full control over something that can destroy it, it'll be less likely to do anything his master wants," Hawkeye shrugged in response.

"Somehow I don't think that's the case. Remember, if a summoner does call the Final Aeon, they end up losing their life afterwards, which would mean that Seymour wouldn't be able to control Sin through that method without having Yuna summon the Final Aeon," Captain America pointed out.

"Right. The Final Aeon is basically a one and done, all or nothing attack, hence the reason why so many summoners take a pilgrimage at the same time, right," Peter reasoned out.

"That is correct, Mister Parker," Lulu confirmed, smiling a little at the boy's show of intelligence.

"But that doesn't mean he wouldn't want to have the Final Aeon as an option for controlling Sin," Sora pointed out. "Maybe…Maybe Seymour's actually captured several summoners already and forced them to claim the Final Aeon, too. If he was able to do that, he would be able to call upon the Final Aeon at any time he wanted, and all he would have to worry about was finding a summoner to replace the one that had summoned it for later on."

"As much as I hate to admit it, Sora's theory does seem to make a little sense," Gwen reasoned, much to the irritation of others, and she was soon raising her hands in silent apology and defense

"Trust me, I hate thinking that, too," Sora promised everyone who was giving him and Gwen dirty looks.

"Even so, someone did have to say it at some point," Auron argued, apparently defending Sora.

"What does it matter why he's taking Yuna there," Tidus interrupted. "We're not going to know about any of that for sure until we get down there and get him!"

"He's right, so we should move out the minute we reach Zanarkand," Captain America agreed. Brother and Cid both nodded in agreement and set to work directing the airship in the direction of the holy city, leaving the captain to address one other matter. "Miles, Gwen, I think it might be best if you two wait here on the ship. This fight could be a lot more dangerous than the ones we've gotten into up until now."

"No way. We've stuck with you guys this long, and Yuna's our friend too. We're not just gonna sit on the sidelines if there's even a chance we can help out," Miles argued, with Gwen standing firmly alongside him in silent agreement. "Besides, what if Sora's Keyblade suddenly zaps you guys back while you're down there, even if the battle is still going on? Do you really want to leave us stuck here with no way home?"

"He's got a point," Hawkeye stated, with Sora nodding in agreement.

"We're going with you, and you can't stop us," Gwen then insisted, and considering that she was giving Cap the look, she was not going to hear any arguments.

Having already received the look once before, Cap had thought he would be able to resist it should she ever direct it towards him again. Turns out, he was wrong, but it was not just the blonde's patented expression that was making him reconsider. No, the other factor was that he could see a fire in her eyes that he had only seen in very few other people, and even fewer that were her age. The kind that said they were willing to dive straight down into the gates of hell in order to do something to help, no matter what the cost. What he saw in Gwen's eyes was the fire that he could only find in the kind of folks that people all referred to by the same name: hero.

Apparently, Cap was not the only one who saw that, as Rikku and her dad saw it too, in both Gwen and Miles, because just after Gwen had made her statement, the two had moved off to the side and retrieved something from a locker that they then presented to the two kids. "If you're really serious about going down there, you should at least be equipped for a fight," Cid said as he handed each of the two cop kids an Al Bhed rifle.

"And here's a little something that I was working on while you guys were unconscious. You know, when I wasn't trying to get my boneheads of family members to see reason," Rikku added as she handed the two a pair of wrist devices. "They may not be as fancy or sophisticated as Peter's, but I'd like to think that they'll do the job pretty well."

Hearing Rikku mention Peter's name like that immediately gave Miles and Gwen an idea on what these might be, and they did not hesitate to put on the wrist devices so they could find out for themselves. Upon tapping the triggers that rested in the palms of their hands, they both had to smile widely at seeing a strand of webbing shoot out of the nozzles, and they were not the only ones, judging by the expressions on everyone else's faces. More so by the looks on Peter and the Avengers' faces.

"Ri, did you…are those actually…?" Sora stuttered.

"You made your own versions of my web-shooters," Peter finally gasped.

"Yep. I was planning on using one of those myself, while giving you another pair, but I think I can let my newest buddies take 'em," Rikku shrugged in false modesty.

"Why would you give one to Peter," Miles asked in confusion. Peter already had his own web-shooters, so it did not really make sense for him to have a Spira version of them.

"For in case he finally ran out of webbing, duh," Rikku admitted.

"Wait, are saying what I think you're saying," Peter asked. "Did you really figure out how to do it?"

"I did," Rikku proudly declared.

"How to do what? What're you guys talking about," Tidus asked.

"Fill in the blanks for all of us who don't speak geek, ya," Wakka pleaded.

"She figured out how to make web-shooters that could create their own webbing," Peter revealed. "It was an idea Gwen had back when we were tinkering around with mine on our rest stop at the Thunder Plains. The biggest problem with my web-shooters is that, while they do have a rotating carousel to load fresh cartridges when one gets empty, they all do end up empty eventually, which means I have to reload them by hand. Not a great thing to be doing while you're several stories up in the air and don't have any web-fluid in either shooter."

"So Gwenie here came up with the idea of making it so that the web-shooters could make new webs on their own," Rikku continued, throwing an arm around Gwen's shoulders as she did. "It took a while to figure out how to do it, but at the most basic level, I fixed these up so that they could trap moisture from the surrounding air and mix it together with some chemicals inside to create the fluid, and voila! Instant fresh webs in the shooters!"

"Sweet! You've gotta show me any notes you made and those bad boys themselves before I leave. I just know I can pull something similar like that together if I can get the parts back home," Peter cheered.

"No prob, Pete," Rikku agreed.

"Well then, if we're all prepared for what's ahead of us, we should get underway," Auron determined.

"Agreed," Captain America nodded. "Cid, Brother, are you ready?"

"You know it. Next stop, Zanarkand," Cid declared, and with that, the ship was flying to their next destination, with the passengers all set and ready for the upcoming fight.

* * *

Despite any remaining misgivings that some of the guardians had, everyone was very glad that they were able to fly the airship to Zanarkand. There was just no way that they would ever have been able to catch up to Seymour if they had attempted to chase after him by climbing the Mt Gagazet the old fashioned way, and right now, time was of the essence. Upon arriving at the entrance to the ruined city, Cid and Brother brought the airship just low enough for Hawkeye and Peter to shoot out a few lines that everyone could use to safely drop down to the ground, mainly for anyone who had no way of getting down from the ship without some form of extra assistance. Sora had offered to give some of the group a lift on his Keyblade Glider, but they all politely turned him down after learning that he had not fully mastered flying on said vehicle. Not long after, they began to make their way inside, knowing that Seymour was likely already in there doing who knew what to Yuna in an attempt to further his plans, so they quickly raced inside, slaying any fiends or Heartless that dared to cross their path.

Many of the fiends that the teams came across were bigger and stronger than the ones that they had seen on Spira thus far, but for the most part, they found themselves dealing with more Heartless than the native monsters. Most of them were the Neo-Shadows along with more than a few Large Bodies, mixed in with the elemental Heartless that the Midgardians had encountered shortly after they first arrived on Spira, but in addition to that, there were also a few new ones as well, namely a type of Heartless that looked a lot like an archer. Hawkeye took a particular bit of joy in destroying those darkness dwellers, which Sora's scanners had identified as Bizarre Archers, but considering that they were opponents that mainly fought using his weapons of choice, you could not blame him. Though it was hard to say if he found it insulting, as an opportunity for a challenge, or as the bad guys showing an appreciation for his fighting style that very few people really understood, and given the way that Hawkeye smiled every time he took out one of the Bizarre Archers, no one was really sure if they wanted to ask him.

Regardless of the Heartless and Hawkeye's reaction to the newest versions that they had encountered, the group made sure that they remained fully focused on catching up with Seymour, and let very little slow them down. When they first landed, Peter was a little concerned about that, because he was sure that would have caused them to unintentionally leave Miles and Gwen behind to fend for themselves, so it was natural that he let out a few sighs of relief when he saw that his friends were keeping up very easily. Apparently, using a Spira style rifle was no different than using an Earth-based one and the web-shooters that Rikku had cobbled together helped the two quite a bit as well. In fact, if Peter did not know any better, he would have thought that Miles and Gwen had been using the wrist devices for almost as long as he had, if not longer. The two were regular naturals when it came to firing off webs, even if it was mostly just pellets of Impact Webbing and a web-line or two meant for tripping up or pulling an enemy into firing range. They also seemed to be enjoying the fact that they had gotten the chance to use what was basically a copy of his signature gadgets, which made Peter a little surprised that neither of them were asking him if he would let them be his sidekicks or something.

Skill levels and enjoyment aside, the group did eventually manage to finally fight their way through all of the various monsters that lined their path, and when they finally reached a large, almost empty room that seemed similar to a Chamber of the Fayth, they found no sign of Seymour. But they did find Yuna kneeling beside a large beside a large stone in the middle of the room, looking very dismayed for some reason, while her eyes frantically looked this way and that, as if she were trying to puzzle together an unexpected mystery. Her face did light up a little though when she heard the door open and saw the group coming in, but it was not until Tidus had scooped her up in his arms for a tight hug that she really let out a genuine smile.

"I'm so sorry, Yuna," Tidus whispered as he buried his face into the young summoner's shoulder.

"No, it wasn't your fault. None of us were ready for what Seymour…" Yuna started to say, thinking that he was apologizing for her capture. She could not have been more wrong though, as she soon discovered.

"No, not just that. I'm sorry for everything. For all the stuff I said before, about beating Sin, about what we would do afterwards…" Tidus whispered, confusing Yuna a little on why he would be apologizing for that.

"Yuna," Sora called out, drawing the summoner's attention to him. "We know."

"Know what," Yuna asked, still confused.

"Everything, including the drawbacks of your pilgrimage to get the Final Aeon," Gwen clarified, startling Yuna a little. The blonde then smirked a little and added, "You're lucky none of us are planning on punching you for hiding that from everyone here who didn't know about it before."

A small smile did reach Yuna's face at the joke, but it did not quite reach her eyes, since she now knew that everyone was fully aware of the fact. "I didn't mean to hide it from any of you, but…"

"We understand, Yuna," Captain America reassured her. "But that doesn't mean you should have to go through with this. We can still find another way to stop Sin, one that doesn't involve sacrificing your life, so there's no reason why you should ever have thought doing so was necessary."

"I mean, come on. Do you really think any of us were gonna be cool with you doing something that make you lose your life," Wakka asked.

"I know you wouldn't be, and I wasn't entirely intending to do so either," Yuna revealed, surprising everyone a little. "My father believed that there might have been a way to stop Sin without the summoner having to sacrifice their life, and he spent his entire pilgrimage searching for that answer. He never found it though, because the end came before his search could yield any results. That's why I've been trying to at least think of a way to stop Sin without having to give my life for this entire journey. I have far too much to live for and too many people who care about me to throw it all away." Yuna gave a smile to everyone in the room, happy to see them all smiling back in return, until her gaze moved towards the floor again and reminded her of the discovery she had made before. "Besides, I don't think it will be possible to use the Final Aeon now, anyway."

"What do you mean by that," Hawkeye questioned, now very confused as to what she was going on about.

"Surely you noticed when you came in," Yuna reasoned as she indicated the stone object she was looking at when they came in. At that point, all the Spiran members of the group, aside from Auron all let out various reactions of disbelief at what they were seeing, much to the confusion of everyone who did not know. "This is supposed to be a fayth stone, namely that of the Final Aeon's, but there is no fayth to speak of. It's just an empty statue."

"Are you telling us what I think you're saying," Miles asked.

"If you think she's telling us that there is no Final Aeon and the whole pilgrimage was pointless, then I'd say your guess is pretty good," Gwen informed him.

"And from the look of things, it seems that this particular fayth has not held any power for a great deal of time," T'Challa stated, his cowl's scanners having already run an analysis of the fayth stone. When the others all looked to him in wonder of how he knew that, T'Challa merely replied, "Wakandan science has long since found a way to measure various forms of energy, including the mystical. In fact, one would say that in Wakanda, science and magic will often work together to do things that neither can do alone."

"But I don't understand. Every summoner who traveled here has acquired the Final Aeon from this ancient city; from Zanarkand. How could the Final Aeon's fayth no longer have any power for so long when others before us have in fact used it to defeat Sin," Lulu asked.

"I think it should be obvious at this point, but then again, considering your group is made up of people who are either outsiders to this world or who have been blinded by Yevon's web of lies, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you need it spelled out for you," a new, dark voice that almost sounded like two voices speaking at once answered. It was a voice that Sora, Spidey, Gwen, and Miles all recognized, and it also made the Keybearer of the four narrow his eyes in anger, even as he spun around to face the speaker.

"Night Hunter," Sora snapped as the Kingdom Key jumped into his hand in a flash of light just as he and the other Midtown students were assuming battle stances. The others all looked to see the masked swordsman standing at the entrance that they had just came through, his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall, looking so incredibly smug that one would think that he had all the answers in the world and he was taking a sick pleasure out of holding them over the heroes' heads.

"You know, I thought people were supposed to at least wait a little while into the message before they started to shoot the messenger. Or do you guys really not want to know the truth about what's really going on with the Final Aeon and Yevon," Night Hunter mocked.

"Like we're going to listen to anything you have to say," Sora retorted, ready to charge until Hawkeye suddenly grasped his shoulder to keep him from doing so.

"Hold up there, Spiky. Let's at least let him monologue for a little while before we hit him," Clint advised. "Bad guys always let something about their evil plan slip when you do."

"Oh, it's not my evil plan that I'm letting slip; it's Yevon's. Well, Yevon and Seymour's, but what difference is there at this point," Night Hunter corrected with a shrug. When the heroes all just stared at him in silence, the dark villain took that as his cue to continue with his big reveal. "Did you really think that you would be able to acquire the Final Aeon like you had all the others? No, such a powerful beast cannot simply be obtained that easily. Every aeon that a summoner acquires is like a friend that they have met for the first time, or an employee that has been sworn into service under a contract. Such a thing could not possibly hope to defeat Sin, as many summoners had learned when the beast first began its rampages centuries ago. In order to truly stop Sin, the summoner Yunalesca called upon her husband, and transformed him into the fayth she would use for the very first Final Aeon. Remembering this success, the priests of Yevon drew up the concept of the summoner's pilgrimage and the guardians. Warriors that a summoner would trust entirely with their lives, and grow close to over the course of their journey as they came here to this sacred city. It is here, in Zanarkand, where the second purpose of the summoner's guardians is fulfilled."

"What second purpose," Wakka demanded, despite the fact that part of him was a little scared to ask.

"Don't you see? It should be so obvious," Night Hunter scoffed in reply before waving a finger over all the members of the group before him, save for Yuna and Sora. "In order for the Final Aeon to truly be created, one of the guardians must become the necessary fayth for its power. It doesn't matter if it was a friend, a relative, a sibling, or even a lover; so long as the chosen person was a guardian that is close to the summoner, they would be able to provide their summoner with the fayth that they needed to summon the Final Aeon."

"So you're saying that…one of us is going to have to become a fayth so that Yunie can use the Final Aeon," Rikku repeated in question.

"Indeed. It's actually quite the example of the heart's power, when you think about it," Night Hunter nodded. Of course, any honest admiration he may have had was quickly replaced with a cruel variety when he next said, "As is what happens afterwards when the Final Aeon destroys Sin. Surely you've noticed that no matter how many times the Final Aeon is used to defeat the monster, it always returns, and so long as this ritual continues, so to shall the cycle of destruction that has ravaged this world for centuries."

"Not if we repent and atone for our mistakes. The teachings of Yevon have said that if we atone for our crimes then Sin will never return again," Lulu pointed out.

"And you really believe that," Night Hunter snorted in dark humor. "It was all a pretty little story; an elaborate web of lies that Yevon's founders and even its current leaders still fed in order to hide the fact that the pilgrimages were nothing more than a simple quick-fix and not a permanent solution."

"Meaning what," Black Panther challenged, his fingers flexing as if he were intending to ready his claws for battle and attack. Kimahri seemed to be the same way, given how his hand seemed like it was slowly edging back to grab his spear at any moment.

"Are you really this slow, or do you really want me to spell it out for you just so you can confirm what you should already suspect," Night Hunter questioned in disbelief. He did not wait for answer, and somehow, Sora knew that the man was getting a bit of a thrill out of telling them this information. "If the Final Aeon really is so powerful, then how does Sin keep returning? Surely you've wondered about that. The truth is that all that any summoner has ever destroyed of Sin was its outer shell; the armor that protects the true monster inside, and after the battle, while the people of Spira celebrate and relax in their precious calms, Sin is reviving its armor using the Final Aeon that had defeated it before. In essence, the Sin of today is the very same Final Aeon that the girl's father used to try and defeat the monster before."

"No. No, you…you lie," Lulu protested. "The teachings all state that we can exorcise Sin with complete atonement."

"Have you not been listening? That was all nothing more than a lie that was crafted to hide the truth from the people. The truth that states that even now, no one has truly discovered a way to end the beast for good," Night Hunter reminded.

"But…But it's been our only hope for all these years," Yuna whispered.

"Ah, the greatest illusion of all," Night Hunter sighed in false happiness. "Hope is nothing more than a convenient blanket that one can use fir comfort as they deceive themselves into thinking that people can attain the purity you speak of, but that is nothing more than a fool's dream. No one can truly reach such purity. The closest any come to such a thing, is when one allows darkness to truly enter their heart, allows the shadows to fill their very being, and become darkness itself. There may be some who can attain a purity of light like that which you have been hoping for, but they are all far more few than those who turn to darkness. So few that they are more than likely born to hold that pure light, or have obtained it through very unnatural means. Then again, considering the greater purpose that those pure lights hold, one would have to wonder if it would truly be worth the trouble of having that power."

"Now what're you on about," Spider-Man questioned.

Night Hunter just waved it off, stating, "Never mind that last bit. It's nothing more than the ramblings of one who serves a much greater purpose than any of you can ever hope to understand."

"Somehow I doubt that," Sora retorted. "Besides, how do we know you're not just saying all this as a way of trying to buy Seymour time to escape?"

"Oh Sora, you truly don't get it, do you," Night Hunter sighed, almost sounding disappointed. "Why would Seymour want to escape when he's exactly where he wants to be? You see, he discovered this truth many years ago, after his mother became a fayth for another aeon, and upon learning this truth, Seymour began devising a way to seize the power of the real Sin for himself. He intend to do that by stealing Yunalesca's power to transform others into fayth, and then using it to create an aeon that would be his alone to command, while being unmatched in power. This aeon would destroy the armor, and then with the Heartless, Seymour will finally destroy the true Sin. Not that he will ever admit to doing so, because as far as everyone else outside this place will know, Seymour will have done the impossible and turned Sin's power to his command."

"That won't be possible. Take it from someone who tried to challenge Yunalesca once before and failed," Auron admitted, surprising everyone.

At that point, something from this little information dump clicked into place for Tidus, and he gasped, "You knew. You knew the whole time, didn't you Auron? About what Sin really is, about Yunalesca…all of it!"

"It does make sense when you think about it. I mean, he was a guardian for Yuna's father, and he finished the pilgrimage to defeat Sin entirely, so it would make sense that he already learned of this before," Miles reasoned.

"That doesn't mean he had any right to hide it from us," Hawkeye argued, having turned a glare in the old swordsman's direction.

"Would telling you all of this have made any of you decide to not come here," Auron questioned. The silence was answer enough for him.

"Hold on, if one of the guardians is the fayth for the Final Aeon, and Auron's still here, then doesn't that mean that right now, Sin is actually…" Gwen started to ask, only to trail off at the end as she and the others all slowly turned towards a slowly paling Tidus.

"Jecht," Tidus finished in a whisper. "My old man is Sin now, isn't he?"

"Hey, give the boy a prize! He helped his group solve a puzzle without me having to give away the answer," Night Hunter mockingly applauded. His clapping stopped short though when Sora spun around and shot a fireball out of his Keyblade at the dark villain. Not that Night Hunter was too worried about the attack, given how lazily he dispersed the fire blast with his sword. "Temper, temper, Sora. I did say you shouldn't shoot the messenger, didn't I?"

"Good thing I'm planning to do a lot more than just shoot you," Sora promised as he prepared to attack again.

"Oh? So you wish to do battle with me now? I'd have thought you would rather stop Seymour, given that he's on the verge of getting what he wants even as we speak," Night Hunter pointed out. The faint sounds of a sudden explosion from somewhere close by made every jump a little as Night Hunter continued, "And I'd say that he's only getting closer with every second. He'd best hope so for his sake, since Sin will be just outside in a few minutes."

"What? Sin coming here," Kimahri gasped aloud.

"That's right little kitty," Night Hunter mocked, making the Ronso growl in response. He ignored the feline-like warrior though, in favor of continuing to mock the Keybearer. "So Sora, I'd say that you're faced with quite the dilemma. Either stop Seymour and free Spira from Sin for good, like I know you had been planning to since you found out about it, or try to fight me in a useless attempt at capturing me. You can't do both, you know."

Sora just growled in response to that, even as he rushed towards Night Hunter, intending to cut him down with the Keyblade. The villain merely let out a short laugh at this as he opened a portal and departed from the chamber, leaving Sora to hit nothing but air. Sora let out an agitated snarl at seeing Night Hunter had escaped yet again, and his frustration was shared by everyone who had past dealing with, or was at least familiar with the masked man by now. Of course, this mostly applied to Spidey and his friends, since they had been there when Night Hunter first appeared before Sora, and knew just how dangerous the man really was.

"Man, talk about a lowlife," Miles grumbled.

"No kidding. I'm starting to think he took lessons from Doc Ock, Gobby, or even Tombstone when it comes to using other big bads to cover his own hide," Peter agreed.

"We'll worry about him, later. As much as I hate to admit it, he was right about one thing: stopping Seymour is our priority at the moment," Captain America advised.

Everyone nodded in agreement with the captain at this, and now that they knew where they had to go from here, they all quickly proceeded into the next chamber. Tidus hesitated for a minute though, sparing a quick glance at Auron that was very telling to the swordsman in question. "You need something," Auron asked.

"Before he became a fayth…did my old man," Tidus slowly asked, though he was unable to really finish his question since he was not entirely sure what he it was he wanted to ask.

Auron did not need him to specify what the question was though, as he already had a few answers lined up. "Jecht asked me to look after you should you ever find your way to Spira, and even though he knew there may be a chance that Braska could die, he insisted that there may have been a chance to stop Sin for good. When asked if he had a plan, he merely said the one thing he always seemed to say whenever we faced a perilous situation that he did not have an answer for."

"'I'll think of something,' right," Tidus filled in with a small smile. When Auron looked to him with a question, Tidus merely chuckled and said, "It was practically his motto when I was a kid. Every time I asked him to help me out with a problem and he didn't have the answer that I hoped for, he would always say that to me, before insisting that if he didn't, then I would."

"Really," Auron asked, sounding a little surprised.

"That's not how I remember it," Sora corrected, letting Tidus know that he and the others were listening in a little bit. "From what I remember, his exact words were, 'Or you could just try and fix the mess on your own, assuming you can stop crying long enough to actually use that bonehead of yours.'"

Even though his face turned a little pink from embarrassment, both at hearing his father's exact words and from Sora's bad impression of the man, Tidus did still join Yuna and Wakka in laughing along with the Keybearer at the old memory, and not long after, Spidey, Miles, and Gwen did the same. As he watched the kids laugh off the memory, Auron had to smile a little as well, since a sense of nostalgia had washed over him from seeing his old friends' kids were not just following in their parents' footsteps, but were actually on the road to even doing better than they ever had.

"Well then, let's go and see how things turn out," Auron finally said. "After all, this is your story, and I can't wait to see how it ends."

Tidus just shook his head in response and said, "Think again, Auron. It's not just my story. It's yours too."

"No, it's our story," Yuna corrected with confidence. "I know that I can't let my fate just carry me away, following the same path my whole life through. I intend to fulfill my father's greatest wish: to finally bringing an end to the sorrow that the people of Spira have felt for so long, without losing my life, or the lives of any of my loved ones. I may not know when we will finally end the sorrow, but someday, I know we will conquer it, and we'll do it without false hope."

"Right," Sora agreed. "Night Hunter may think that this world is doomed to be covered in the darkness of Yevon's lies, but we'll prove that our light, our real hope is far stronger than any of that."

Everyone agreed with that, and with nothing more to be said, they all moved into the next chamber with their heads held high, and determined to prove to Seymour that their fates were in their hands.

* * *

For all appearances, the chamber in which our heroes found Seymour looked much less like a room inside the massive building that lay in the center of Zanarkand, and more like a small piece of an archway that rested amidst the stars, literally. Even when they looked back, they could barely make out the entrance to the strange place against the star-lit night sky that surrounded them, and the only things that stood out from all of this were the apparently incomplete stairways that sat at the side of this square spit of land, and the ruined columns that appeared to have once been part of a larger temple. None of them were too concerned about the aesthetic design of their surroundings, because they were more focused on a the half Guado who stood across the room, chuckling like only those of evil intent would when they had just gained something that they were after.

"Yes…this power…The power to create the fayth that fuels the aeons, and to forge the Final Aeon. With all due respect, Lady Yunalesca, you were a fool to have used it in the way you had, but then again, I suppose such foolishness can be forgiven, since you never had your eyes opened to the possibilities as mine have been," Seymour mused to himself, apparently not noticing that recent arrivals. On the other hand, it could be that he did and was just too wrapped up in his new found powers to really care. It made little difference to the Avengers and their allies, because they were only interested in one thing: saving Spira from this madman before he plunged it any further into darkness than it already had been, figuratively and literally speaking.

"Stand down, Seymour," Captain America ordered, his shield already set to be thrown at any moment.

"Or don't. I've been itching to put a few arrows through you ever since we first met," Hawkeye smirked as he notched one such arrow.

Seymour did not show even the smallest hint of concern as he turned to face the group. Instead, he just grinned widely and remarked, "Ah, the traitors to Yevon arrive at last. I suppose one can't be too picky about who they have as witnesses for the beginning of a new era."

"Oh spare us that kind of lnyb! You're the real traitor here! You and every other yccruma that's been calling the shots in Yevon," Rikku snapped in return, unintentionally letting a little bit of Al Bhed slip into her speech.

Only Tidus paused to wonder what the translation for Rikku's words and Yuna must have noticed since she was kind enough to whisper the translations to him before he could ask. "Lnyb means crap, and yccruma is asshole."

"Yuna, don't use such language," Lulu scolded.

"I'm just translating," Yuna shrugged in her defense.

"Perhaps we should save the language lessons for later," T'Challa advised, not seeming to let his gaze move from Seymour for so much as one second.

"I couldn't agree more," Sora nodded. "We're not going to let you create a new Sin so that you can turn Spira into your own little plaything, Seymour."

"Oh? And how pray tell could you possibly know that," Seymour questioned, thinking Sora was just bluffing.

"Well, we may have gotten a little tip from your buddy in the helmet and creepy-looking jumpsuit. Honestly, you'd think that bad guys would've learned by now that they just can't ever team-up with each other. They always end up betraying their so-called teammate in the end every single time. Either that, or they just find out they aren't as solid of a team as they initially think they are once the good guys come in and thrash them," Spider-Man revealed in a jovial manner.

Hearing this, Seymour could not help but scowl a bit, having figured out the meaning behind the web-head's words, but it soon passed as he said, "No matter. Night Hunter and his allies were merely a means to an end for me. All I've ever cared about was Spira, and with both Yunalesca's power and that of the Heartless now in my hands, I will not be denied for much longer."

"You do remember that you can't really control the Heartless right? They've already slipped from your command once, and it's only a matter time before they take your heart along with the hearts of everyone else on Spira. Not just the human hearts, but those of the Guado too. Do you really want to doom both of your people to that," Sora cautioned.

"I could care less about the Guado. They cast me out like a piece of trash when I was barely more than a baby in my mother's arms, and humans have never looked upon me in any manner that would be considered better. Now, I am far beyond any of them, and they will either obey me or learn to fear me, just as Sin will when I finally destroy it once and for all," Seymour boasted in return, proving that he did not care about anyone other than himself.

"Not while we have anything to say about it," Miles promised, aiming his borrowed rifle at the madman.

"Yeah, the only one around here who's going to be kicking my old man's ass is me," Tidus joked with a flourish of his sword, almost as if to better show how he was planning to be the one that stopped the monster that Jecht had been forced to become.

"Besides, if you really were as great as you claim, you wouldn't have even needed that power. Face facts, you're nothing but a sad child that can't help but lash out at the world around him in a desperate need for payback. You're no better than some playground bully," Gwen snarked in addition to that. It may have been a little out of character for her to talk down to someone like that, but Peter would be the first to say that she did have it in her. He had seen it firsthand many times when the blonde had stood up to Flash for him, but right now, while it was impressive and kinda hot in his eyes that she was doing so to a supervillain, it was a bit more worrying than anything else.

Gwen's remark definitely struck a chord with Seymour, and like that, he growled viciously and unleashed a powerful shockwave of his new power across the room, almost as if the universe intended to prove Peter's concerns were well-founded. It was certainly doing a great job, because everyone seemed to buckle a little under the force of Seymour's little demonstration. They were a little surprised that they were able to stand their ground when the shockwave finally passed, but they were a little skeptical of how long that was going to last, especially with how angrily Seymour was glaring at them. "So you wish for me to prove that I am superior to everyone on Spira and to all of you? Then so be it! My new rule shall begin with your deaths," Seymour promised.

Seeing the man was beginning to lift up into the air, carried by his new powers, along with how energy seemed to radiate out of him like a solar flare from a star, coupled with how the room seemed to shake under the force of his show, Wakka could not help but look to Gwen and say, "I think you probably shouldn't have said anything, ya?"

"You're not planning to run away now, are you," Lulu asked as she readied the doll she used as a focusing tool for her magic.

"Hah! Fat chance," Wakka scoffed. "I'd never forgive myself if I ran away now. Even in death, ya!"

"My thoughts exactly," Lulu smiled in agreement.

"Friends need Kimahri. Kimahri protect friends, and Kimahri avenge Ronso," Kimahri promised as he twirled his spear around with low growl.

"This is our story, Seymour, and you're part in it is about to end," Auron declared.

"And we're going to make sure that it ends on our terms," Tidus promised, with Yuna nodding in resolute agreement.

"Well, what else really needs to be said besides that," Rikku asked, showing she was ready to at any time.

"I can think of one thing," Sora smirked as he spun his Keyblade around while activating his helmet and gauntlets. With that, he waved the blade forward, and shouted, "Avengers, assemble!"

As usual for everyone who was actually part of said team, that simple battle cry was the signal for the fight to start, as everyone rushed in to attack Seymour. Miles and Gwen both stopped part way through said charge so that they could provide suppressing fire using both their rifles and the make-shift web-shooters, with Hawkeye making it a point to stay close to the kids as well as he fired his arrow before notching at least three more and firing them soon after. Wakka and Lulu were both quick to take a long-range offensive as well, with Wakka actually coating his Blitzball in some fire magic before tossing it while Lulu just cast the most powerful lightning spell she knew. All of that provided the rest of the group with plenty of openings to charge in and hit Seymour any way they had, as the fallen maester soon discovered when he was hit by several different punches, kicks, slashes, stabs, and even a bash from both Cap's shield and Yuna's staff. After she had gotten a fair amount of hits in to be satisfied, Yuna did back off from the main fight so that she could be ready to summon an aeon at a moment's notice and so that she could better heal her teammates when they needed it. Of course, she also provided a few different protection spells here and there so that when Seymour did strike back using his own powerful attacks and magic, the others were reasonably safe from taking serious damage.

The initial charge did not really land that much injury to Seymour, even if some of them were not expecting it to be that easy, and Seymour was soon quickly proving that he was going to do whatever he could to take them all down by casting powerful magic spells that even Lulu struggled to perform. The first time around was a powerful barrage of ice magic that left several of them feeling like they had just stepped into the worst blizzard imaginable, and while the follow-up bombardment of fire spells did warm them up, the downside was that it also made a good number of them breathe sighs of relief when they realized that they were not just piles of ash afterwards. You could thank both T'Challa's keen instincts and Peter's Spider-Sense for a good deal of that, but if it were not for the magic barrier that Yuna had conjured to block the next powerful blast of energy that Seymour threw out, they all knew they likely would have ended up being flattened into pancakes on the ground.

When the magic barrier dropped, no one had expected to find Seymour right in front of them, so it came as quite the surprise when he suddenly rushed in and slashed Rikku several times over with his massive claws before she was thrown away from the group via a hard, magic infused punch. Tidus and Kimahri were instantly in front of Yuna when they saw Seymour charge for her, and they were both quickly blocking whatever attack he threw out with their respective weapons. They were unable to do anything more than that though, but thankfully, Auron and Black Panther stepped in just seconds before Seymour finally broke past the two's guard, forcing the madman back as he dodged Auron's sword, while ultimately landing right in striking range of T'Challa and his vibranium daggers. Captain America was soon joining in on the confrontation as well, with Sora and Spidey not far behind, but the four were all soon forced back again when Seymour suddenly erected a reflective barrier that had the added effect of making them all feel like they had just attacked themselves.

When another shower of bullets, arrows, and a Blitzball suddenly hit him in the side, Seymour growled in annoyance as he looked to where Hawkeye, Gwen, and Miles were positioned as they continued to fire their respective weapons, while Wakka caught his ball on its return trip as he raced to his next attack position. Seymour immediately dealt with the Blitzer by throwing out a blast of wind and ice magic that not only blew Wakka off his feet, but also froze him where he landed, forcing Lulu and Yuna to cease preparations for their next attacks so that they could attend to him. With those three out of the way, Seymour took the chance to unleash a new fury of spells on the three ranged fighters, making Hawkeye shout for the three of them to scatter. Both of the kids heeded Clint's advice without any hesitation, and managed to avoid the first few salvos of fire, ice, and thunder that came their way. Unfortunately, it could not last as Gwen soon learned when her foot ended up caught on a crack in the floor and caused her to trip. Seeing that made Seymour smirk in maniacal glee, as it presented him with the perfect opportunity to make the girl pay for her earlier insults, and he immediately began to power up the spell he would use to make that happen.

Seeing Gwen in trouble, Sora and Peter both acted on instinct, with the latter charging over to his friend so that he could try and shield her with his body, while the former just aimed his Keyblade at her as the tip glowed brightly. Sora was not sure why he was not charging over like Peter was, but something inside him definitely seemed to know what it was doing, and so did the Keyblade, so he did not question it too much when he cast his next spell, even when Peter had already gotten within arm's reach of Gwen, or when Seymour cast his spell.

"Prismatic Agony," Seymour chanted as he sneered at Gwen. "A spell that reflects and amplifies the pain you feel from when it first strikes several times over until you either perish or are rendered unable to move without inflicting further harm on yourself. A fitting power to use on a brat such as you, and anyone else who dares to question my power as you have."

Gwen could not even bring herself to look as Seymour's spell was cast, but she soon found herself wrapped up in familiar, warm arms, and peeked out through her eyelids to see Spider-Man holding her close with his back facing Seymour's incoming attack. If she ever needed greater proof of Peter's self-sacrificing nature, at least when it came to people he cared about, Gwen certainly did not anymore, but that did not make her any less pleased that Peter was going to try and sacrifice himself for her. She could probably say that their world needed him, as Spider-Man and as Peter Parker far more than it needed Gwen Stacy in her mind, but the truth was, she just needed _him_ in _her_ world. She was so caught up in the moment that she barely registered hearing Sora shout out the name of his spell, or the sound it made when it took shape.

"REFLECT," Sora cried out, and in an instant, a dome of energy just like the one Sora created when Zemo attacked Avengers Mansion began forming around the two friends, creating the beginnings of a powerful, magic barrier. What no one expected to happen was that when the two spells collided with each other, they seemed to blend their energies together while washing over both Spider-Man and Gwen.

The force that he was suddenly assaulted with made Peter grunt a little in pain, but since she did not have his tolerance for sudden pain, Gwen could not contain her scream when the mixed spells washed over them. What some would probably find surprising though was that Gwen's screams were not due to how much it hurt, but rather, how sudden it was, because really, it did not seem that painful after a few minutes. If anything, as the sensation continued, the pain lessened, and Gwen began feeling like something inside of her had begun to change in a way that she did not understand. For some reason, she just knew that it went right down to her DNA, almost like someone had started to infuse something into her genetic code, and it was now in the process of creating something entirely new and different within her. When the two spells finally ceased their work, Gwen could barely keep herself upright enough without help, but she was still able to see that the sudden mix of spells had caused quite the explosive backlash, as Seymour was now several feet away from her and Peter, along with their friends that had been closest to their position.

"Are…Are you okay," Peter panted, sounding pretty drained when he did ask.

"I think so," Gwen weakly replied as she gave him the best, reassuring smile she could muster in the moment. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure," Lulu admitted. "Seymour's spell seemed to suddenly mix with Sora's, which makes a certain kind of sense since they are both reflect spells in nature, but no one's ever seen two such spells mix with each other before."

"What do you mean," Sora asked as he came over to them, already using his Keyblade to help heal the two as much as he could.

"Normally when two spells of the same element are mixed together, it just creates a much more powerful attack, like if you were to use a fire spell mixed and a wind spell, or it they would cancel each other out."

"Like with a fire spell and ice spell," Sora guessed.

"Yes, that is one example. However, no one has ever mixed two spells of the reflect element before, mainly because most of them are defensive in nature. This would be the first time I've ever seen it happen, and that's without considering that one spell was meant as an attack while the other was a shield, so anything could have happened as a result, and may still happen," Lulu finished.

"Hey, how about we ponder the mystery later! There's still a bad guy to beat, and it looks like he's about to call for reinforcements," Hawkeye shouted, drawing their attention back to the fight just in time to see several Shadows and Neo-Shadows start rising up from the floor, along with a few Large Bodies and elemental Heartless as well.

"Heartless, finish them all, now," Seymour commanded, but to both his and the heroes' surprise, the Heartless did not do as they were told. Instead, they just remained right where they were, jittering about as they swerved their heads this way and that, like they were trying to confirm what they were seeing. "What are you doing? Destroy them," Seymour snapped, only to yield the same results. "I am your master, and you will do as I say!"

What happened next was not something any of them expected, as a light suddenly flashed in the back of the room, making everyone pause so that they could shield their eyes to prevent them from going blind, and when it finally faded, they saw something that some of them had suspected but were still surprised by all the same. There, floating amidst the stars on the back wall of the room, in the usual glowing outline, was the very thing that Sora and his friends had been looking for since they arrived on Spira: the Keyhole, and from the look of the Heartless, it seemed that they were just as surprised as everyone else was for a moment before they started making a mad dash towards it.

"NO," Sora shouted, his mind already flashing back to that night on Destiny Islands as he saw the dark creatures advancing. "Don't let them get near the Keyhole, no matter what happens!"

Hearing Sora's desperate plea drew everyone out of their stupor and back into action, as T'Challa, Hawkeye, and Miles all immediately opened fire on the Heartless with their respective long-range weapons, destroying as many of the Heartless that were closest to the Keyhole as they could, and Wakka and Gwen were quick to join in on the attack as well. Captain America and Sora both took it upon themselves to get in front of the Heartless, thanks to Sora quickly teleporting them into a position between the dark creatures and their target, and the two easily began destroying the various dark creatures as quick as they could, determined not to let a single Heartless slip past them. It became a little easier when Spider-Man swung around and over to help the two, but unfortunately, that left the others to deal with Seymour, a fact that the Guado maester was too happy to take advantage of.

To Seymour's surprise though, none of them really seemed that worried, and when he realized why, it was already too late. Sometime during the Heartless' charge to the Keyhole, Yuna had begun waving her staff around in an elaborate dance, while a few magic circles took shape beneath her feet, and when Seymour finally took notice of this, she had already finished casting her spell. In an instant, a large, bird-like creature descended from the sky above them, bringing a mighty gust of wind with it as it flew through the air until it came to rest alongside of the summoner who had called it. This bird-like being was none other than Yuna's very first, and perhaps her most loyal and favorite aeon, Valefor, and she intended to unleash its power in full on Seymour, along with any other summon she had up her sleeve.

"Everyone, attack Seymour together," Yuna shouted, and anyone that was not busy trying to keep the Heartless from reaching the Keyhole did just that.

Lulu led the charge by hitting Seymour with every one of her most powerful spells, opening the way for Tidus and Auron to hit the half-Guado with a raging flurry of sword strikes that could only come from two swordsmen working in tandem. When the two backed off, Seymour thought that he had finally caught a break along with an opening, only to be blown away by several of Rikku's grenades. Apparently the Al Bhed girl was really upset about him using her as a scratching post earlier, and she was not willing to take it lying down. Of course, her fury was nothing compared to the raw power and savagery that Kimahri unleashed on Seymour when he attacked, and his attack was guaranteed to fall through thanks to Wakka taking a break from attacking Heartless so he could spare a few shots in assistance, with Gwen doing the same soon after. Eventually, Seymour found he could only try to cast defensive spells or just attempt really powerful attacks to discourage the group from attacking him, but it was just too not enough as he soon discovered when a bolt of lightning suddenly came down on him, courtesy of Sora, who had paused in his rapid slashes against the Heartless for just long enough to cast said spell in the madman's direction. Add in the powerful gusts of wind that Valefor was sending in his direction to keep him off balance so that the process could be repeated a few times over, and Seymour was beginning to panic about his chances of winning.

"No, this can't be," Seymour protested, much like any bad guy would when they were about to be defeated by heroes they had believed were incapable of stopping them. "I'm so close that I can taste it! I can't be bested by a mere band of misfits and out-worlders! I am destined to become the next Sin and rule all of Spira!"

"No, you aren't," Tidus denied. "The only thing you were destined for is to be a lousy creep who takes advantage of the people around him!"

"And beyond that, it would seem that you were also meant to give us the opening we need to take destiny into our own hands, and defeat Sin without the Final Aeon," Yuna finished. She then glanced to her aeon one last time, and directed its attention onto Seymour once again as she commanded, "Now Valefor! Finish this with Energy Blast!"

The instant that Yuna's command had been given, Valefor shot into the air like a rocket, reared its head back, and unleashed an incredible salvo of energy beams across the battlefield, most of them focused on Seymour, while the remainder reduced a good chunk of the Heartless into nothing more than dust. When the attack finally ceased, the group all waited with baited breathes, hoping that they had beaten their enemy. Eventually, the smoke did clear, and they all saw Seymour stumble quite a bit before he finally fell to the ground in defeat, all of his power and strength clearly zapped away after he had been hit by that last attack. Not wanting to chance any possibility of having to go through all of that again, this time with Seymour as a fiend, Yuna immediately began to perform the sending, and though she was glad that the vile man was now gone for good, a part of her did feel a small twinge of pity for Seymour, even if he did not really deserve it.

When Seymour finally vanished into a shower of lights, the gathered team knew that there was only one last matter to deal with in this place, and as he struck down another Heartless with his shield, Cap looked to the one person who could settle that matter, and shouted, "Sora, go!"

The spiky haired boy did not even pause to nod in acknowledgement of the order before he raced towards the Keyhole, slaying any Heartless that came into his path as he went. After making one last jump to get within range, Sora spun Kingdom Key around in his hand, aimed it at the Keyhole, and sent a beam of light straight into the mystical passage. When the beam struck, everyone heard the sound of something being locked echoing throughout the room, and along with that echo, there came a powerful burst of light that seemed to explode outwards around them, and it instantly wiped out all the remaining Heartless without any trouble at all.

Seeing all of their enemies were either defeated or just straight up gone, no one complained or criticized when several members of the group just dropped down onto their knees or backs in exhaustion, panting quite a bit as they did, as they were all just relieved that they had won. After letting out a few tired breaths of his own, Hawkeye looked to his teammates and said, "Okay, we stopped Seymour, sealed the Keyhole, and essentially made sure this world will be protected from the Heartless, and kept everyone safe…Can we go home now?"

"No! We still haven't stopped Sin," Sora protested.

"But that is not our purpose here," T'Challa immediately countered. "For all we know, the only reason your Keyblade brought us to Spira was so that we could stop Seymour's plans, and prevent the Heartless from drowning this world into darkness by sealing the Keyhole. We have done both of those things, and if a Keyblade wielder is not allowed to interfere in the affairs of other worlds, then our remaining here to help destroy Sin may very well be such an interference."

"So what? We told Yuna and these other guys that we were going to help them, and I'm not about to go back on a promise to a friend," Sora insisted.

"I can respect such a decision, Sora, and I do agree with you on this, but maybe it would be better if we at least get back to Earth for just a short time," Captain America argued. "Not only would it allow us to get Miles and Gwen home safely, but it would also mean that we could bring back the rest of the Avengers to help us as well."

"Cap's got a point, kid. I mean, if Sin really is as big and bad as everyone here says it is, then we need to bring in all of the big guns, and there aren't many guns bigger than Hulk and Thor, or even Pym when he decides to stop being a wimp and actually fight, namely by going giant," Hawkeye pointed out.

Sora could see all of those points, but there was one thing that the other three appeared to be forgetting, so he quickly reminded them of it. "I know that makes sense, but did you guys forget that I can't teleport to other worlds on my own, even if I have been to them at least once before? I've been trying to get back to Atlantis and Olympus in my free time for months now, and all my best efforts have ever done is made me look either ridiculous or just stupid. What if this time isn't any different?"

"What if you there was someone left behind that you had to come back and get," Peter asked, confusing everyone a little with his question. "Think about it, nothing says that all of us have to go back, so why not have one of us stay behind while you take everyone else back. Maybe having someone from our world getting left here would help your Keyblade zero in on the world, like a tracking beacon."

"That's a horrible idea," Sora protested.

"Agreed. If we did that, we would risk stranding the person left behind on Spira with no way back," Captain America nodded.

"Well Sora did leave a message with his friends from Space, so even if it doesn't work, he could always just have them pick the person up and take them back, couldn't he," Spidey reminded them.

"Maybe, but that's only on the off-chance that Donald and Goofy have found enough of their ship's map data to find both Spira and Marvel-topia," Sora pointed out, having mentioned that particular point about why Donald and Goofy had not already arrived on Earth while they were all on the road.

"Look, either way, it doesn't matter. We should at least send Miles and Gwen back home so that we don't have to worry about them getting hurt, and the same goes for Spider-Kid," Hawkeye insisted.

"Hey, watch it, Purple Arrow," Peter snapped.

"And considering that we still don't know what could have happened to Gwen and Peter after they were hit by yours and Seymour's combined reflect element spells, it may be best if you transport them home so that they can be properly looked at," Lulu added on, thinking that such a matter should not be ignored for too long, even if it meant that their otherworldly friends were going to have to return to their home with small chances of returning to see this journey through to the end.

Sora could tell that he was not going to win on that particular point, so he finally sighed in defeat and summoned his Keyblade. "All right," Sora finally nodded. "But I'm not leaving anyone of you behind. Tidus and Wakka are both here, and they've been with Yuna and the others since the start of her journey, so they'll be the ones to act as my guide post."

"Makes sense to me," Tidus nodded. "Me and Wakka aren't from Spira, so there's no reason why someone from your world should have to stay just so that Sora can figure out how to get back."

No one argued with that, and with simple nod, the Avengers, Spider-Man, Miles, and Gwen gathered around him as he held his Keyblade out, focusing his thoughts on Marvel-topia and Avengers Mansion as he did. Of course, he did make a point to ensure that Tidus, Yuna, and the others had taken a few steps back first, just in case they accidentally got pulled along for the ride, but after a few minutes had passed, they were all a little surprised that nothing was happening. Sora's eyes eventually began to scrunch up in hard concentration, almost like he was trying to force it all out, but eventually, he relaxed his posture again, and then raised the Keyblade up, similar to some of the times he had seen Thor raise his hammer when the Asgardian planned to go to another place in the Nine Realms. That attempt did not have any more success, as no flash of light came, and they all remained right where they were on Spira.

"Any time now, superstar," Hawkeye prompted.

"I'm trying! These things take time, you know," Sora insisted. He then made a few more motions while waving his Keyblade in an attempt to get their transport to Marvel-topia going, until finally, he slumped in defeat and said, "Sorry guys, but I've got nothing."

"You mean that even after sealing the Keyhole and beating the guy who was working with the Heartless, we're still stuck here," Spider-Man gasped in disbelief.

"It would seem so," Auron nodded. "Looks like your stories on Spira are not quite finished yet."

"Indeed. Which means that if the Avengers are to aid you in defeating Sin, it will be up to those of us who are already here to do so," T'Challa confirmed, though from where they were standing, it looked like he was addressing Yuna more than anyone else.

The summoner in question nodded in reply to Black Panther, though it did not seem like she was too terribly disappointed by the fact that they were not going to get help from the rest of the Avengers. From Yuna's point of view, the heroes that stood alongside her were more than enough to help her finally fulfill her father's dream of ending Sin for good. She was just about to comment on this when Rikku suddenly cried out, "Well you may be getting your chance a lot sooner than you think. Pops just called and said that Sin really is heading this way and will be outside the city any minute now!"

"Then there's no time to waste! Let's get moving, people," Captain America ordered, leading the charged back to the entrance of Zanarkand, with everyone determined to face Sin head on when the beast arrived at the ruined city's doorstep.

* * *

Rikku was not exaggerating when she said that Sin was going to be outside of Zanarkand soon, because the minute the group had gotten outside the ancient city again, they saw the massive beast floating right before their very eyes in all of its horrible glory. From what they could see, they saw that Sin's body was similar to that of a whale's, and it had clawed arms and hind legs that resembled pectoral fins, along with a long tail. Even from a distance, Hawkeye could still see what looked like a small part of a destroyed city resting on its body close to the head, but they could all see the large, feathery wing-like protrusions that seemed to carry it through the air. Either way, there was no denying that this monstrosity of a beast was definitely here for a reason, but the fact that it was just sitting there was throwing quite a few of them off.

"How come it's not doing anything? I thought Sin was supposed to be a mindless creature that destroyed everything and anything without a care in the world," Gwen finally asked.

"That's true for almost everywhere else, but for some reason, even when it does come close to Zanarkand, Sin has never once tried to carry on with its destructive path in this city. That's why Zanarkand has become considered as a holy place," Lulu revealed.

"Or maybe…it reminds the person inside of Sin of the place where they had last been human," Tidus offered.

"Doesn't matter either way, because this looks like our best chance to put an end to the thing," Hawkeye pointed out.

"Hawkeye is correct," T'Challa agreed. "We should strike the beast while it is docile."

"Hey, I'm all for that, but how are we going to stop Sin without the Final Aeon? I mean, it's not like any of us have thought of a plan yet, ya," Wakka asked.

"Actually, I think I might have an idea," Sora revealed. When everyone turned to face him, Sora explained, "Remember what Night Hunter said? About how the thing that all the previous summoners beat was just Sin's armor? Well, armor always protects something, so we just need to get inside of Sin, and hit whatever is underneath."

"And how are we supposed to do that? Because from where I'm standing, the only way into that thing is to follow the examples of Jonah and Pinocchio when they met a whale," Spidey pointed out.

"That doesn't mean it isn't an option, but we should at least consider trying something that would either slow it down or discourage it from going on any rampages while we're inside fighting it," Captain America pointed out.

"Now that is an idea I can get behind," Hawkeye stated with a smirk. He then pointed up at where he guessed Sin's throat would be and said, "We just have to hit one specific point on its soft spots with as many blasts and powerful attacks as we can, and we should have a straight shot inside."

"I think my dad and Brother might have something on the airship that can help with that," Rikku revealed with a smile, clearly excited at the chance to use said airship in a fight.

"Not to mention, one of Yuna's summons might be powerful enough to soften it up a little too," Tidus offered.

Seeing as they had a plan beginning to form, Captain America quickly took charge and ordered, "Okay then, we'll hit from down here along with Yuna's summon. Sora, you take Hawkeye, Miles, and Gwen up to the airship."

"Uh, I get Hawkeye, but why are me and Gwen going up too," Miles asked.

"Because this fight is definitely going to be too dangerous for to go dragging civilians into it, especially since there's a chance that we may not make it back out," Hawkeye stated. "What I want to know is why you're not having Spider-Boy go and wait on the ship with them."

"First off, it's Spider-Man, and I'm not going to tell you again, and second, you wouldn't be able to stop me from going in there with you even if you tried," Spidey retorted.

"He's not wrong, and besides, he's already faced some incredible odds on his own that would give some of the Avengers pause. In my book, that makes him perfect for a job like this," Captain America insisted.

Miles and Gwen would have argued against being left behind, and the Avengers letting Peter go with them, but they knew that the captain had a point, and from the look of Peter, he was just as adamant about them staying on the ship where it was safe, even if he had to web them onto the ship's deck, so they just nodded in agreement as they moved over to Sora with Clint. Before Sora could cast his teleportation spell, Gwen quickly rushed back over to Peter and kissed his masked cheek before saying, "Please make sure you come back safe."

"I promise," Peter nodded in return, and he then pulled Gwen back in so that he could give her a proper kiss. When the two separated again, he whispered, "For luck, and just in case this doesn't work."

Gwen could only nod in return as she slowly walked back over to Sora, and like that, she and the other three vanished from the ground, only to reappear on the airship's bridge seconds later, much to Cid's surprise. In fact, Cid was so shocked he was barely able to let out more than a simple gasp of surprise before Hawkeye had marched up and asked where the weapons controls was, and the man could only just point to the console in question in reply. Taking over for the Al Bhed crew member that had been previously stationed there, Hawkeye told Brother to bring the ship around to a certain point, and then gave Sora a simple nod to say that the kid could head back to the ground whenever he was ready. The Keybearer did just that once he saw the nod, and in a simple flash of light, he was back down on the ground with the others, just as Yuna had finished performing the necessary spell to summon one of her strongest aeons.

When the light show from Yuna's summoning spell faded, everyone was greeted to the sight of a massive, dragon-like being with large, red wings, a very muscular form, and large jaws filled with sharp teeth kneeling behind her, and they were all sure that they would be able to feel the sheer power that this aeon possessed even from a distance. "When did you get this one," Tidus asked, incredulously, because he did not remember the group ever stopping at a temple that Yuna could have gotten this aeon from.

"Seymour did not take me directly to Zanarkand. He stopped in Bevelle for a moment to take care of some of his own business. I took a chance to pray to the fayth in Bevelle's temple while Seymour was distracted, and only just managed to receive Bahamut before he caught me again," Yuna explained. She then looked to Sora and asked, "Did Hawkeye say where we should attack?"

"No, but I get the feeling we'll know in just a moment," Sora replied, and he was right.

Mere minutes after the Keybearer had spoken, the airship let loose a barrage of weapons fire that struck one particular spot on Sin's throat, and after zeroing in on the target point with his helmet's scanners, Sora pointed directed Yuna's attention to that same location. An instant later, Bahamut let loose a powerful energy blast upon the same location, and to further help things along, Sora, Lulu, Wakka, and even Rikku began to fire off whatever long-range attacks they possessed as well. They all kept up this bombardment of attacks until Cap ordered them all to cease fire, so they could get a better look at their handiwork. When the smoke from their attacks cleared, they all let out quick cheers upon seeing that they had managed to make the necessary hole in Sin's throat that would get them inside.

Spider-Man was about to fire a few web-lines to help get them up to their opening, when Bahamut suddenly knelt down among them and allowed Yuna to climb onto his back. "Come on! Everyone, climb aboard," the summoner prompted.

"Uh…are you sure it's safe to ride on that thing," Spider-Man questioned.

"Yeah, of course it is," Yuna reassured him, while the others began clambering onto Bahamut's back. "The aeons care a great deal about Spira too, so they won't let any harm come to us."

"Maybe to those of you who are actually from Spira, but for the rest of us," Spider-Man pointed out, trailing off at the end so that the others could fill in the blanks on their own.

"Don't worry, soldier. We'll be fine," Cap reassured the young vigilante as he and T'Challa climbed on as well.

After a few more seconds of hesitation, Spidey joined the rest of the group on Bahamut's back, while Sora just teleported back onto the airship to retrieve Hawkeye, saying he would meet them inside. The minute he had, Bahamut lifted up into the sky and rocketed towards Sin, drawing a scream of fright out of the web-head due to how sudden the whole thing. Their flight came to just as quick of a stop after they went through the opening in the beast's throat, and after they had climbed off Bahamut and back to the ground again, they all breathed sighs of relief at seeing Sora and Clint right next to them as well, proving that Sora was able to get them onto the draconian aeon before it had gotten too far in. Of course, this fact did have a downside for the web-head who had just been freaking out so much.

"You swing through New York on a thin, easily snapped web-line, and yet flying on the back of a dragon-like creature makes you scream like a little girl," Hawkeye questioned. "No offense, Rikku, Yuna."

"None taken," the two girls immediately replied, only to realize what Hawkeye had just implied with his words a second later. "Wait, hey!"

"I can control the web-swinging, and my webs are not easily snapped. They can hold a car, or even help me to stop a speeding train if I needed them too. I just happen to go up against a lot of supervillains that have really sharp claws, knives, or are just flat out stronger than the webs," Spidey retorted.

Clint did not have a retort for that, but instead, he simply just hummed and said, "Yeah, I know what that's like. You would not believe how often people just shred through the cables that my grappling and net arrows are made of, and those things are made of tough stuff."

"Focus you two," Auron snapped. "We're only half done."

"He's right. You guys can compare equipment notes and experiences later. Right now, we've got a world to save," Sora reminded them.

Everyone nodded in response to that and began marching further into the winged, whale-like beast, taking extra care to mind their surroundings as they advanced. Despite their intense focus though, no one could ignore the rather beautiful landscape that surrounded them. There was a vibrant mix of colors all across the ground and what counted as both the walls and ceiling in this strange place, while what looked like gold, shooting stars raced over their heads, and sometimes even slowly dropped down to the ground. Even the rather vicious spikes that suddenly shot up from beneath their feet had a kind of eerie beauty to them, while the trails ahead all seemed to sparkle like freshly polished glass. To be honest, if anyone else had seen this place and not been aware of just what it really was, or the danger it presented, they likely would have tried to take several photos of it so that they could capture the images before them forever on film, or so that they could take it to the best artists they knew to try and recreate it on paper at a later date.

In point of fact, Peter actually did get his camera out once or twice so that he could snap a few quick photos, and Sora could not help but take some too with the camera on his phone, but all photo sessions quickly came to an end when they reached the end of their strange trail. You would think that they had all paused for a moment because they were finally face-to-face with the true Sin that lay within the massive, monstrous armor that so many summoners had destroyed over the centuries past, but the real reason, while similar, was still rather wildly different. There, standing before them, with a red headband tied around his forehead, with his family emblem tattooed onto his bare chest, white bandages wrapped around his right wrist, metal armor running all along his left arm up to his shoulder, and black shorts with a dark orange and black sash covering his right leg, was none other than the man who became Braska's Final Aeon himself and Tidus's father, Jecht.

When Jecht took notice of his visitors, he crossed his arms in thought for a minute, until he eventually smiled a little as his eyes fixed on three individuals in particular. "Well, whaddya know? Never thought I'd see folks from the islands ever again, let alone a bunch of the runts after they've gotten all grown up," Jecht remarked in his rough, almost arrogant sounding voice, but the boys he had singled out could all tell that said arrogance was even more of an act than usual. Clearly his time on Spira had tempered Jecht's attitude quite a bit. "Wakka, look at you! You're a friggin' giant!"

"Well, what can I say? Had to hit that big growth spurt that every member of my family seems to get sooner or later," Wakka shrugged as best as he could, refusing let himself get choked up over seeing the man that had inspired him to become a Blitzer.

"Heh! Yeah, I guess so," Jecht shortly laughed before his eyes locked onto the spiky haired boy of the three Islanders. "Wait a minute. Is that little Sora?"

"Uh…Hi, Mr. Stone," Sora hesitantly waved. He would never admit it, but there was always something about Tidus's dad that intimidated Sora a bit. Maybe it was the wild-man look that he always held.

"Yeah, that's Sora all right," Jecht tiredly sighed. "Not only is it impossible for anyone to have hair that spiky as far as I know, but he's also the only one of you runts to have never gotten it through your heads to _not_ call me Mr. Stone. It's either Jecht or Sir, none of that Mr. stuff. It makes me feel old."

"But you are pretty old now, you know," Sora pointed out with a half-hearted tease.

"Hey, watch it! This 'old' man is still as tough as ever," Jecht playfully cautioned. He then turned completely serious when he laid eyes on his only son, and sighed, "Hey kiddo."

"Hi Dad," Tidus just barely managed to whisper. Not that you could blame him. This was the first time he had seen his father in years, and for all that time, he had thought that his dad had died at sea or something. There was just so much that he needed to say, that he wanted to say, and yet, now that the moment was here, he could not bring himself to do it because of how choked up he was getting.

Jecht must have realized this, because he quickly went right to his usual method of trying to get Tidus out of his funk. "Hey, are you seriously gonna start cryin' already? I woulda thought you'd have stopped doing that so much by now, kid."

"Shut up! I'm not crying," Tidus snapped back, his fire already back to normal. "It's just…I can't believe that…"

Jecht's smile became a little more gentle as he quietly replied, "I know, kid. I know." The moment soon came to an end though as he said, "Listen, I don't have a lot of time, but I've gotta tell you all what you need to know to stop Sin for good."

"Do you mean to say that you finally have a plan," Auron questioned.

"Hey, I told you I would think of something, didn't I, Auron," Jecht playfully questioned in return. "When you've got so many years of free time between being forced to destroy and kill, you can't really do anything other than think, and I've finally got a solution that doesn't involve the summoner dying."

"Well don't leave us in suspense, pal. We're all ears," Hawkeye prompted.

"It's the aeons," Jecht informed them as simply as he could. "Sin needs the Final Aeon to create a new body, and when the old one is beaten, Sin is weakened quite a bit before it moves in for the transfer to the next Final Aeon. However, that's the only aeon that's truly compatible with it. All the others you've gathered, they could be used to fill the space, temporarily, but it wouldn't work in the long term, and they wouldn't be as powerful while under Sin's control."

"So then, whatever aeon Yunie summons, will become Sin's new body," Rikku summarized.

"Yep, and you need to let that happen. Since the other aeons aren't entirely compatible, you'll be able to knock down Sin several times over, until its finally weak enough for you all to move in and finish it off for good. I know that it's probably not going to be easy, but you're most likely gonna need to sacrifice all of your aeons to make this work," Jecht finished. Seeing the sad look that had begun to form on Yuna's face, Jecht then added, "Hey, don't be getting so down. This is something that the aeons and their fayth want, too. They've been stuck in an endless dream for centuries, so now; all they want is to finally stop dreaming and move on to the next life, just like anyone else. I should know, being made into a fayth myself, and all."

"But what about you? Won't doing this also mean that you'll end up…?" Spidey started to ask. He knew that there might have been a chance that they could not save Tidus's dad, but that did not mean he was not hoping there would be. After all, he hated the idea of anyone losing a parent or parental-figure like how he had lost his uncle, so it was only natural that he would be determined to keep it from happening as often as he could.

"Well unless you want to use the Final Aeon, this is the only way," Jecht shrugged. He then adopted the softest expression that any of the Destiny Islanders had ever seen on his face as he said, "At least this way, I'll finally get to see all my old buddies again, and my wife too. Just do me a favor and make sure that Tidus doesn't follow me there any time too soon, ya hear?"

Everyone could only give hesitant, silent nods in return, and when they saw that Jecht was starting to seem like he was fighting against himself, they knew that the final fight was about to take place. With that in mind, they all readied their weapons and feel into their battle stances, except for Tidus, who could only look at his dad in sorrow. More than that, he still had one thing left to say to his father. "Dad," Tidus called out, getting Jecht's attention. "I…I hate you."

You would think that Jecht would be upset when he heard that from his own son, but it was actually just the opposite. Instead, he actually smiled a little, knowing exactly what his boy really meant when he said that, let out a short laugh, and replied, "Yeah, I know. Love you, too, Tidus. You've really grown."

"Yeah, but you're still bigger," Tidus shrugged, finding some familiarity in this conversation.

"Well, I am Sin you know," Jecht pointed out.

"That's not funny," Tidus immediately scolded.

Jecht still laughed a bit, but his laughter quickly ended as he let out a pained grunt, and said, "You'd better get ready. Pretty soon I'm gonna be Sin completely, and once that happens, I won't be myself anymore. I won't be able to hold myself back, so you'd better give it your all, or you will more than likely end up dead. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize for something that isn't your fault! Let's just…let's just finish this, okay," Tidus begged as he drew his sword.

"Yeah, you're right," Jecht agreed. He then stepped back a few paces, and then shouted, "Well, then…let's go!"

A minute later, they all watched as Jecht transformed into the aeon he had become when he became the fayth for Braska's Final Aeon, and they were all left rather stunned and a little frightened. Jecht's aeon form was a rather monstrous beast that almost appeared to be a deformed version of Jecht himself, with brown scales and horns, and crests of spikes emerging from his back and shoulders. His hair and the tattoo on his chest had both turned white, while his eyes were now a glowing yellow. More crests of spikes covered some of his legs, and despite the fact that his right hand was still proportionate to his body, his left had been transformed into a very large, bestial claw. They figured that the right hand had not been changed so that he would be able to wield the large, black sword that was firmly gripped in said hand. In short, it looked nothing like what anyone would expect a creature that gave hope to the world to look like, be it of one world or another.

"Yikes, and I thought that Guard Armor thing Night Hunter set loose on our school was freaky," Spider-Man muttered to Sora.

"Doesn't matter how vicious it may look. He's not invincible, and we've got to take him down, even if we don't like it," Captain America reasoned to everyone, his shield already brought to bear before him.

"Then let's make this quick," Tidus told the group. He then fixated his gaze on the creature that had once been his father, and challengingly shouted, "Hit me with all you got, Dad!"

"Something tells me, you don't really want him to do that," Hawkeye quipped in return before he fired an arrow on the Aeon-Jecht.

That single arrow turned out to be the perfect signal for the start of the battle, as the others all began letting loose any long-range attacks that they had at their disposal onto the monstrous form of Jecht. Anyone who did not have any solid methods of attacking at a distance just waited for the best moment between those attacks to move in and land some strikes of their own, and when they did strike, they struck hard. Between Wakka infusing his Blitzball with various elements, Lulu's numerous magic spells, Rikku's various grenades, Hawkeye's arrows, and even T'Challa's vibranium daggers, there was very little time for Aeon-Jecht to get in any kind of counterattack, so he was easily left disoriented enough when Spidey, Cap, Tidus, Auron, Kimahri, and Sora made their moves. Of course, they did try to make sure they did not end up being too predictable, assuming that Aeon-Jecht's mind was capable of that level of tactical thinking. Every now and then, some of their close-combat fighters would drop back to lay down whatever barrage they could, such as when Sora would jump back to fire off whatever spells he managed to get out of the Keyblade, or when Spidey shot of some webs in an attempt to either blind or immobilize the giant monster man. Whenever they did that, some of the others who were fighting at a distance would get in close too, and Rikku made sure that the claws of her gauntlets were driven very deeply into their target, while Wakka slammed his ball against the monster as hard as he could whenever he moved in close.

That was not to say that Aeon-Jecht did not get in any shots at all, as they all soon found out that he was not just Braska's Final Aeon in name alone. The powerful laser beam that he fired out from his eyes was certainly proof of that, and it was also part of the reason why Spidey made it a point to blind the massive creature with his webs as often as he could. Of course, there was very little the web-head could do to stop anyone from getting slammed or crushed by the massive claws that Aeon-Jecht possessed, and since no one was going to kid themselves into thinking they might be strong enough to either block or deflect a blow from that thing, they all made it a point to dodge or duck as often as they could when they saw Jecht prepare to attack with the massive appendage. The only thing more worrying than that laser beam and the massive claws was probably Jecht's sword, as they could tell just from appearances that a single swing of that thing was likely to tear a mountain clean in two. That suspicion was soon proven true when Aeon-Jecht swung the massive blade down at them, and destroyed a good portion of the strange ground they were standing on in that single blow. After that attack, they all put in their best efforts to make sure that he was not able to so much as prepare, let alone complete an attack with that sword again.

While all of this was going on, Yuna remained in the background, either healing the others, or using whatever offensive light magic she had at her disposal. She would probably have tried to summon one of her aeons to help with the fight, but from what Jecht had said, she would need as many of her aeons as possible for when they finally defeated his aeon form, if not all of them. With that in mind, it was no mystery as to why she was not going to fully join in on the battle. Even without the Final Aeon, Yuna was still a very vital key to ending the terror of Sin once and for all. Though from the worried look on Auron's face when he saw Aeon-Jecht stab his massive sword into the ground and prepare to leap on top of it, she had to wonder if she should at least consider summoning one of her aeons.

"Careful! He's about to use his most powerful attack! The Ultimate Jecht Shot," Auron shouted, the worry in his voice as clear as glass.

"Then we need to finish this now," Captain America determined.

"Right, and I know just the thing to do it with," Tidus decided. "Wakka, set me up!"

"You sure, man," Wakka asked.

"Oh yeah," Tidus grinned. He then turned to Sora and asked, "Think you could add a little extra fire to it?

"You bet; we've got your back," Sora nodded with a grin, aiming his Keyblade high. "Wakka, let it fly!"

Wakka just nodded in response, jumped back a few feet, and then tossed his Blitzball as high as he could. When the ball came back down, Tidus bounced it back towards Aeon-Jecht with a hard kick. The ball hit again, this time harder than before, and when Tidus kicked it this time, it went high into the air before he leapt up and bounced it off his head and back at the monstrous form of his father, once again harder than before. When the ball came flying back towards him, Tidus hit it as hard as he could with his hand, bouncing the ball off Aeon-Jecht's front and high into the air. While the ball was airborne, Tidus gave Sora a quick nod, and the boy aimed his Keyblade at the spinning ball and let loose a fire spell that set it ablaze as Tidus leapt up as high as he could, spinning his body around several times over to build up momentum. After one final spin, Tidus stuck his foot out and kicked the burning Blitzball as hard as he could, sending it flying right into Aeon-Jecht's face, and unleashing a very fiery explosion when it hit.

The monster form of Jecht let out a pained roar as it stumbled under the latest attack's impact, causing him to completely halt in powering up his powerful ability. Sora took that opportunity to rush in, using a burst from his gauntlets' repulsors to send him rocketing forward at high speed, and with a single swing of his Keyblade, Sora dealt the final blow that ultimately brought Aeon-Jecht collapsing to the ground, face-first. After Sora landed, everyone could only watch in slight sorrow as the massive beast began to revert back into the human it had been spawned from, while a black orb slowly slipped out from the top of its head, but to their surprise, Jecht had a proud smile on his face, even as he dropped to his knees. Before his father could fall to the floor, Tidus quickly rushed over and caught the older man in his arms, his eyes beginning to water up a little as he did so, but he did not care right now, and from the looks of things, Jecht was distracted by something else to notice.

"That was…That was my move, wasn't it," Jecht weakly questioned. "The Sublimely Magnificent Jecht Shot Mark III."

"You know, I still think that's a stupid name, especially since there never was a Mark I or Mark II," Tidus weakly retorted with a small smile.

"Hey, I told you, that was just something to hook the crowd, and it did, didn't it," Jecht reminded him. "Besides, from what I just saw, you seem to have added enough of an extra something for there to be an official Mark II, now, right? Guess now…I'm not really the best anymore, huh?"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. I mean, you're still the one who came up with the original move," Tidus teased. He then grew silent again, feeling a little more somber than before, and admitted, "You know, I used to get so mad at just the thought of you, and that made it so much easier for me to say that I hate you, but…"

"Hey, save it for later. You've still got a job to do, you know," Jecht interrupted, not wanting to waste any time.

"I need to say it now, or I may never get the chance again," Tidus insisted, and from the way his dad jumped a little in response, he could tell that he got the message across. "That all may have been true, but after coming here to Spira, hearing about what you did from Auron, Yuna, and a few others, and even now after all that just happened…For the first time, I'm glad to have you as my father."

That made Jecht smile the most honest, happy smile that Wakka or Sora had ever seen on his face, and a moment later, he pulled his boy in for a one-armed hug, and replied, "I've always been proud to call you my son, Tidus, and to be honest…I kinda wish I was able to shed a few tears at things like you could."

"Seriously? I'm trying to be serious and honest here, and you're making fun of me just because I cry a little every now and then," Tidus joked in response.

"A little? I think you might've been hit in the head a few too many times, because clearly your memory's not all that trustworthy at the moment, and who's making fun of anyone. I'm being just as serious," Jecht playfully argued.

"Sir Jecht…I should…" Yuna started to say, feeling that she should perform a sending for Tidus's father. Jecht was of a different opinion though.

"No, Yuna, there's no time," Jecht insisted. "You need to call the aeons now while you still have a chance! Sin's going to come at us at any minute!"

At that point, everyone finally took notice of the black orb that had slipped out of Jecht earlier and how it was orbiting around them like a moon around a planet, until it changed course and struck the handle of the massive sword Jecht had been wielding a moment ago. The minute that happened, everyone was nearly blinded by another brilliant light that served as a precursor to a change in their surroundings. From what they could see, they were all now standing on top of the blunt side of the massive sword, which had been enlarged quite a bit as it floated in a massive, colorful void. Sora could not really give an opinion on the place, but from what he gathered, this place was probably a lot like what the Farplane looked like. Of course, he was only thinking that because he overheard Lulu whispering something like that from close by, but he set it aside for later, as he heard Yuna start chanting as she prepared to summon the first aeon that they would use to weaken Sin's true form further.

"Set ablaze in battle, Ifrit," Yuna called out as she finished her dance, and soon after, her second aeon burst out from the ground in a raging inferno. The horned beast with massive claws and a very demonic-like appearance did not remain on their side for long, as they were all soon watching as the dark orb merged with Ifrit, changing his colors from reddish brown and light red to pitch black and dark gold respectively. When it transformation was complete though, they all saw Ifrit twitch and jitter quite a bit, and they all took that as a sign that Jecht's suggested plan may be working. They did not take any chances on waiting around to find out for sure, as Sora and Lulu both took action by unleashing various ice or water based attacks. Sora even went so far as to surprise the others by coating his Keyblade with some ice magic before he threw it at the burning aeon much like Cap often would his shield.

"Nice shot, Sora," Hawkeye praised when he saw how Sora's chilling attack not only dealt some serious damage, but also froze Ifrit in solid ice so that Tidus and the others could land a few strong hits on it. "When did you figure out how to do that?"

"Oh, the usual way. Turns out, my visions can happen in short bursts after all," Sora shrugged as the Keyblade spun back into his hand. "Apparently, Ventus was really good with Keyblade moves that are called Raid attacks, like the Freeze Raid I just used."

"Well I hope you picked up on some other varieties, because I think we're going to need them for the next round," Spidey commented as he landed the finishing blow against Ifrit with one powerful web-slingshot.

Thankfully Sora soon got the chance to prove that he did after Yuna summoned forth another aeon, this one being the samurai-like warrior known only as Yojimbo. Normally, Yuna would not summon this aeon, given that it always had a penchant for demanding payment before it performed any attacks, but under these circumstances, she was willing to make an exception, and once again, they watched as the true Sin took on the aeon as its new host body. Sora was the first to attack by using the most common Raid attack that he learned from his quick vision was called Strike Raid, and the Keyblade easily tore through the sword-for-hire aeon both on its initial and return trips, much like Cap's shield did when he tossed it at Yojimbo. T'Challa and Auron then met the samurai aeon in close-combat, matching its blade strikes blow for blow with their own respective blades. Surprisingly, it was Rikku who landed the final blow against Yojimbo with her clawed gauntlet, and with that, Sin left the destroyed aeon, weaker than before, and the process repeated once again.

In point of fact, that same process repeated quite a few times, with Yuna summoning forth both the lightning horse, Ixion and her draconian warrior, Bahamut, and given how much more often the aeons would twitch and shake while possessed by Sin, it was clear that the greatest evil to ever walk the surface of Spira was nearing the point of being completely defeated. Even so, judging by the scans that Sora was constantly taking of the real Sin with his helmet, it was going to take a bit more until they reached the point where Sin was weak enough for them to end it for good, and Yuna was quickly running out of aeons to summon. All that she had left were Valefor and the one that she acquired at Macalania, and somehow, he had a feeling that the bird-like aeon was one that Yuna did not wish to part with.

The Keybearer's hunch was soon proven true when after he had used a Fire Raid to destroy the icy aeon that Yuna had called Shiva to weaken Sin further, but only to the point where they would still need one more aeon to really finish the job. "Yuna, you have to summon one more time," Sora called out.

"But…all I have left is…" Yuna stuttered, suddenly feeling a little nervous.

"I know, but we don't have a choice. If you really want to get rid of Sin for good, then we need that bird-brained friend of yours," Hawkeye tried to reason, shooting off a few arrows at Sin while it was vulnerable, just in case it got any ideas of trying to possess one of them, even though none of them were aeons.

"Hey, Valefor is not a bird-brain," Yuna snapped in retort.

"Yeah, and I don't think you have much room to talk about bird-brains, _Hawk_ eye," Spider-Man added, making sure to put a good deal of emphasis on the first half of the archer's name.

Clint just rolled his eyes in response to that, and decided to let Tidus do the talking from that point, given that the blonde boy was obviously better at getting Yuna to see reason than he was. "Yuna, I know it hurts, and I know how important Valefor and all the aeons are to you, but you don't need them to be strong. This is their choice, and it's also their way of showing you that you can be strong without them if you can let them go, just like how my dad did for me a moment ago."

Yuna was still hesitant on doing as the others were asking, but in the end, she knew that they were right, and looking into Tidus's eyes, she knew that she could trust him on this, so she waved her staff in the required manner, while saying the corresponding chant for her faithful friend. "Descend…Valefor."

Seconds later, the aeon in question descended from the skies above in its usual show of speed and aerial capabilities, and just like the aeons before him, he too was taken over by Sin, and Yuna could barely stop her tears from falling when she saw her friend turn to such dark colors. She shook it off though as she joined the others in attacking the possessed aeon in every manner that they could, until finally, Valefor also fell to the ground, defeated like the others, and Sin finally too weak to so much as avoid the group any further. Seeing that, Yuna made it a point to unleash her most powerful light spell, Holy as many times as she could, a fact that was replicated by her comrades as they unleashed their best attacks as well. Even the Avengers were throwing out their best or strongest attacks and equipment in an effort to destroy Sin for good, but it was not until Sora finally charged in through the use of Sonic Blade, that the greatest terror of Spira finally fell, and they all soon found themselves being blinded by a brilliant light once again. When the light cleared, they were all surprised to see that they were back on the airship, and the whale-like monster that they had been inside of was beginning to fall apart, dispersing into small particles of light.

 _"Hey, are you all okay out there,"_ Cid's voice called out over the ship's intercom.

"Yes, we're fine, Cid," Yuna confirmed. "Sin has been defeated, and this…it won't ever be coming back."

"Then there's only one thing left to do," Auron noted, surprising everyone, even as he stepped forward to kneel before Yuna. "Perform the sending one last time, Yuna. For the souls that make up the fayth for the aeons…and for an old warrior who has lived for too long as it is."

"Sir Auron," Yuna gasped, while the others just stared at the man in either surprise or confusion.

"Uh…what does he mean by that," Spider-Man questioned, being one of the people who was confused.

In response, Auron closed his eyes and let a few lights float out from his body, showing everyone who knew, namely those who were either from Spira originally, or had been on the world long enough to know, exactly what he meant. "You…You're already dead," Tidus whispered.

"After I learned the truth about Sin, I confronted Yunalesca, and in my anger, I attempted to attack her. It did not end well for me. That should have been where my story ended, but through my determination to keep my promises to my old friends, I continued to live on, without ever becoming a fiend, and now, my part in your stories is done," Auron explained. He then allowed everyone to see his gentle smile as he concluded, "This is your world now. Make sure that the stories you tell it are all great ones."

While she was hesitant to have to say goodbye to another friend, Yuna did still nod and performed the sending one final time, maybe not for everyone, but certainly for her. As she performed the sacred dance, everyone was left in slight awe and some of them even shed a few tears as Auron faded away into the particles of light known to those of Spira as pyreflies, and soon after, the night sky was lit up with many more, floating away into the air like little lanterns before they faded away entirely, while the faint images of the aeons that they were linked to orbited around the airship before vanishing as well. When all of the last traces of both Sin and the aeons had dispersed into faint sparks of light, everyone knew without a doubt that it was truly over. Sin was gone, Spira was freed from Yevon's lies and false hopes, and the world had finally been saved from its greatest threat.

* * *

A few hours later, everyone had gone to Bevelle so that Yuna could announce Sin's ultimate and final defeat, along with revealing the truth about Seymour and Yevon, and while everyone was overjoyed to hear that Sin was finally gone for good, many were left rather shocked at the truth behind the teachings that they had followed for so many generations. No doubt it would take some time for that to sink in, but Yuna was confident that everyone would eventually come to accept it and learn a new way of life someday soon. Not that she was really hoping for it to happen that soon, because after making her announcement, along with giving a small speech about how their futures were now in their hands, Yuna just wanted to go back home to Besaid Island, and the others were all too happy to join her in that journey.

Upon their arrival at Besaid, they found themselves swept up into a celebration of both Yuna's victory over Sin and her triumphant return home, and this time, Yuna had no qualms about joining in on the festivities. After all, there was a huge difference between some fancy, city-wide party for elites like the ones that were being held in Bevelle, and the small party of close friends and neighbors that her home village was throwing. Even the Avengers could not help but join the celebration for a little while, but only just long enough to be polite, because they knew that they had to get home right away. Of course, there were still a few things that some of them needed to address.

"You know, you guys can come with us. I'm sure Tony wouldn't have any trouble getting you both enrolled at Midtown with me, Pete, Gwen, and Miles, and we could always use a few more members on the Avengers to help out with dealing with both the Breakout escapees and the Heartless," Sora told Tidus and Wakka when he finally got the two of them away from the party long enough for them to talk in private.

Both of Sora's older friends wanted to join Sora on his adventure, the Keyblade wielder could tell from the looks in their eyes, but more than that, he could also see that they had already made a decision on that before he had approached them about this. "We appreciate that, Sora, but we're not going with you," Wakka revealed.

"Yeah, and even if you do find a way to bring the islands back, I don't think we'll be going home again anytime soon," Tidus added. "We've found our place here, on Spira, and neither of us plans on giving it up now that we have."

"But if I do figure out a way to restore our home, then what about your friends on the islands, or your families," Sora asked.

"Sora, in case you haven't noticed, I'm an orphan again, and that was true even before the islands were destroyed by the Heartless. The only real friends I had back home were Wakka and Selphie, and there's no telling whether or not Selphie's still alive somewhere," Tidus pointed out.

"Yeah, and the only family I had left was my little brother, Chappu, and who's to say that he's going to come back even if you find a way to restore the islands," Wakka nodded along. He then cast a glance over in the direction of a certain black mage and added, "Besides, why would we want to leave when we've found something here that's really worth fighting and living for?"

Sora could only smirk in response to that, easily picking up on what Wakka meant by that. Contrary to popular belief, Sora was not as dense as some people thought, at least when it came to other people's relationships, so he had no problem teasing them about said relationships when the topic came up. "All right, I get it. Just make sure that you two behave yourselves and play nice whenever you're around Lulu and Yuna."

"What?! Wh-what're you talking…Who said anything about Yuna?! He was just…I mean, we were…" Tidus stammered, and Wakka was no better considering he went as stiff as a statue while his face turned about as red as his hair. When Sora belted out a loud laugh, the two boys immediately reached to grab him in retaliation for his teasing, but the slippery little Keybearer was just too quick for them, and thus a friendly chase around Besaid began, much to the amusement of the other Avengers and anyone else who happened to see the three friends.

In fact, Lulu could not help but let a small smile grace her lips before she returned her attention to the two Midgardians that she was speaking with. "Make sure that you talk to someone that can help look into what happened as soon as possible. I'm sure you don't want to find out what those combined reflect spells caused at an inopportune moment," the black mage advised Peter and Gwen.

"Don't worry, neither of us plans on leaving that alone for very long, but I don't think we're going to have much luck finding a magic expert anytime soon that can help that easily," Peter joked in reply. "Besides, I haven't really felt all that different since it happened."

"Speak for yourself," Gwen groaned as she rubbed her forehead. "I've had a small headache popping up and out every few minutes or so since it happened."

"All the more reason why you should investigate as soon as possible," Lulu insisted.

"Like I said, don't worry. We will," Peter promised, with Gwen nodding along soon after.

After a few more goodbyes were exchanged, the Avengers and their young friends all gathered around Sora once again, ready to try to get back to Earth one more time. Just as Sora had summoned his Keyblade though, Rikku shouted for them to wait, clearly having one more thing that she had to say to the Keybearer as she locked eyes with him. "Syo ouin raynd pa ouin kietehk gao," the Al Bhed girl stated.

"Um…What," Sora asked.

Rikku merely giggled and explained, "That's the Al Bhed way of saying a certain phrase that all Keyblade wielders had said to each other and many other people all the time, at least according to legend, and it's one that my family is also really fond of and follow quite a bit to this day as well."

"Well can we get a translation of what you were saying, because none of us speak Al Bhed, you know," Miles pointed out.

"I know what it means. My father also liked that saying as well and used to say it to me all the time when I was little," Yuna replied. She then smiled brightly and translated, "May your heart be your guiding key."

"May your heart be your guiding key," Sora repeated in a whisper before he smiled back to the two girls with a nod. With that said, Sora aimed his Keyblade up towards the sky, and everyone could only watch as the legendary weapon glowed brightly, enveloping the heroes of Earth in its light before they all vanished from Spira completely.

Even after they were gone, Yuna and her friends still looked on at where they were, until they all started waving goodbye while Tidus called out, "Bye Sora."

* * *

"He did it again! I can't believe he went to another world without me again," Janet yelled as she stood off to the side of the room while Tony ran a scan of the lounge. The size-changer and billionaire had immediately dropped everything after Hulk had called them saying that Sora and the others had disappeared with Sora's classmates, knowing that it could only have mean that the Keyblade Samurai had once again traveled to another world, and ever since arriving, Janet had been going on that tangent almost nonstop. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that she was going to tear Sora a new one unless something else came up that almost just as surprising or important, even if the kid was not entirely at fault, a fact that was surprisingly pointed out by Hulk.

"You do remember that Spiky still hasn't learned how to control his world jumps yet, right," Hulk questioned with his arms crossed as he inhaled some more snacks. He was not touching the cookies that Miles had brought because of his promise to let the rest of the Avengers have at least one first, and so far, Janet and Tony had still not had their one.

"Doesn't matter! He still promised that I would get to go with him next time," Janet huffed.

"No he didn't," Tony corrected, having made sure to record every conversation that Janet and Sora had on the topic, at Sora's request. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to see if there may be even a slight chance we can bring Sora and the others back a little…"

 _"Pardon me for interrupting, sir, but the mansion's sensors are detecting a sudden increase in magical energy similar to the type that Master Hart's Keyblade gives off when it is about to transport him to another world,"_ JARVIS suddenly interrupted.

Before anyone could question JARVIS on what he meant by that, a bright light suddenly filled the room, making Tony jump back a little from where it had originated from, and when it faded, the room's three occupants all let out relieved smiles when they saw who had been deposited into the room with them from said light source. "Ah, home sweet home," Sora breathed in relief as he dismissed his Keyblade.

"No kidding. Let's all just agree to never do that again, huh," Hawkeye prompted.

"Do what, exactly? Go to another world via Keyblade magic, or go back to Spira," Miles teasingly questioned.

Hawkeye just gave the kid a look to show he was not laughing, despite the fact that everyone else seemed to at least be sporting humored smiles, but all laughter ceased when Janet stomped over and shouted, "Sora Jonathan Hart, you are in so much trouble, Mister!"

"Okay, one, that's not my middle name," Sora started to say in a quick defense, hoping he could quell the angry Wasp's fury.

"Don't care! That doesn't change the fact that you went to another world without me again, or that you took Cap, T'Challa, the newest member of our team, a couple of your classmates, and Spider-Man instead," Janet snapped in retort. Her anger quickly vanished though when she realized who the last person on the list was, and she then turned a confused look to the web-head in question as she asked, "Wait a minute; how did you bring Spider-Man to another world with you anyone? Did he sneak into the mansion or something?"

"Of course not. Bright as he might be, I doubt that he's smart enough to get past my security systems with his resources that easily," Tony immediately dismissed. "Besides, Sora invited him here along with the other two, isn't that right, Mr. Parker?"

Everyone went silent at that, most of them staring at Tony with eyes that were wide enough to be dinner plates while the others were just looking back and forth between the billionaire and Spidey. In fact it was so quiet you would think that someone had removed all form of sound from the room until Spider-Man finally spoke up to ask the only question he could think to ask. "What…How do…You know?"

"Relax, kid. I've known who you were for months now and haven't told anyone, and from what I gather, you've already had to expose your secret identity to my teammates as well, so I'd say that you don't have anything to worry about in that regard," Tony waved off. "To be honest, when I heard that Sora had invited you over, I was kinda hoping that I would get the chance to talk to you for a little bit before you had left, at least until Pepper dragged me into the office for some official work at Stark Industries. Almost seems like a blessing in disguise that Sora's latest trip to another world pulled me away from that a few hours ago so that I could help figure out a way to get you guys back from our end, but it looks like we didn't need too."

"Tony, are you seriously saying that you've known that Spider-Man was just a high school kid this whole time and didn't do anything about it," Captain America demanded.

"Cap, you've spent time hanging out with the kid. I'm sure you've figured out that he's got his reasons for doing what he does, and that he's just a good kid with a caring heart. Why would I do something about it, well, other than figure out a way to meet him so that we talk shop or something, because I've gotta say, he definitely strikes me as a bright kid," Tony shrugged.

"Wait, _you_ wanted to meet _me_? Seriously," Peter gasped in surprise as he pulled off his mask. Normally it was the other way around, and it definitely was in Peter's case since Tony Stark was one of Peter's idols even before he became Iron Man, so you can imagine how surprised Peter was to hear that the billionaire genius wanted to meet him. "Why would you want to meet me for anything, let alone talking shop?"

"Because I do my homework, and from what I've seen, you've got a lot potential in your future, especially if you have a little guidance and a few other things," Tony admitted. After saying that, he could see the kid's eyes lighting up in excitement, but that did not stop him from continuing on with his little speech. "Of course, the first of those things would be getting you a complete upgrade. I'm talking systemic, top-to-bottom, hundred point restoration upgrade, especially in the case of that onesie you call a suit."

"It's not a onesie," Peter immediately argued. "And besides, we can't all have access to the latest technology. Some of us have to make do with the simple things in life like our aunt's sewing kit."

"Wait, seriously? Are you telling me you made that suit yourself," Janet gasped. When Peter just nodded in reply, Janet could only hum in appreciation for that and admit, "I'm actually a little impressed."

"Either way, there's no denying that you could still use the upgrade," Tony interjected as he stepped out of the room for a minute, only to come back in with a silver briefcase in hand. "Which is why I would like you to have this. Feel free to go ahead and try it on now, if you'd like."

Peter just looked between the briefcase and Tony for a minute before he finally accepted said case and opened it up to reveal what was inside. What he found was something that definitely surprised him, because inside was actually a nearly exact replica of his suit, only with quite a few differences that he could easily spot. It still retained the color scheme his current one had, but it was obvious that this red and blue portions of the new suit were slightly darker than those of his current one. In addition to the fact that it still retained the web patterns along with the design of his spider-emblems, Peter also noticed that there were a few extra, solid black lines on some parts of the suit, namely on the arms and boots, and along with that, the eyes of the mask seemed much more heavily tinted than his usual mask, and somehow, Peter could tell just by looking that this new mask had some extra features built into it somehow.

Even after taking it all in, Peter could only stare at this new suit in awe before he finally looked up at Tony and received a nod in reply to his unasked question. That did not mean that Peter could stop himself from asking it though. "Is this…Is this really for me?"

"Of course. I did design it with you in mind, and based off of everything I could ever gather in regards to you and your powers, but I'm sure that there are still some adjustments that will need to be made before it's perfected, if you're willing to let me help out with that," Tony confirmed. He then decided to add in a little joke at the end and said, "Besides, it doesn't fit me. So, are you gonna try it on, or what?"

Peter was all too happy to do just that, and a few minutes later, everyone was watching as Spider-Man entered the room once again, this time clad in the suit that Tony had just given him. Even though the changes were rather minor in terms of appearance, they all had to agree in saying that Peter looked a lot more impressive in this new suit than he had in his old one. There was just something about it that made Peter seem a little more serious and confident as a hero. "Wow, this is amazing," Peter whispered as he looked out through the mask, enjoying the HUD that it he had discovered was built into it earlier quite a bit, with the eyes of said suit widening and narrowing a little to show off some clue of his facial expressions. "Any reason the eyes were designed like this though?"

"Just figured it would better help you to show folks what expressions your face was probably making than your old one did," Tony shrugged in response. "Plus you probably noticed that you can see a little better thanks to the lenses, too."

"Yeah, I did actually. How'd you know to put those sensors in the lenses," Peter asked.

"Well, I noticed pretty quickly that the eyes of your mask were pretty heavily tinted, and while I figured that part of it was to keep folks from seeing your eyes through the mask, I figured another reason was probably because your spider-powers included enhanced senses or something. And from the looks of things, I wasn't wrong," Tony remarked, and everyone immediately turned to see that he was messing around with Peter's old mask, even going so far as to try it on to see if he could see through it. "I mean, Lordy, can you _really_ see through these things?"

"Yes, yes I can," Peter confirmed with a little, unintentional bite. He quickly reigned it in though as he admitted, "When I got my powers, it was like all my senses had been dialed up to eleven. Sometimes, there was just way too much input and that made it a little hard for me to focus at times. Not a great thing to have to deal with when people are shooting at you."

"I can only imagine," Tony nodded. "I just wish I was able to do a little bit of work with your web-shooters, but I couldn't figure out how to work in some of the ideas I had for them without knowing all the details about how they work and the exact formula for your webs."

"Well I could help with that, if you still want to," Peter offered.

"That would be a big help, but you know what I think would really help you? If you had access to a proper lab where you didn't have to sneak around to do anything related to your Spider-Man stuff. Like say, one of the labs at Stark Industries, or maybe the labs here at the mansion," Tony then offered.

"Wait, Tony are you offering Peter a place on the team? Because that would be so awesome for so many reasons if that is the case," Sora asked, getting more and more excited by the minute, and the same could be said for Peter, Gwen, and Miles judging by the looks on their faces.

"Well, not a full-time membership. If anything, I'm offering him a reserve position," Tony clarified. "Along with an internship at Stark Enterprises that would not only offer better pay than what he makes from selling those glorified selfies, but also serve as the perfect cover story for when he needs to suddenly disappear and do his Spider-Man-ing thing. What do you say, kid?"

Peter was not sure what to say. The whole thing just seemed like something out of a dream to him, but then again, everything he had just been through since he first walked into this mansion could be considered as such. Looking around the room and seeing the encouraging looks he was getting from both his friends and the Avengers themselves definitely served as strong evidence of the fact that he was in fact awake, along with the suit he was wearing, but he still felt the need to pinch himself just to be sure. He did not follow through on that though, because one last look at Gwen told him that the girl he cared so much for was completely on board with him doing this, and that she was more than willing to support him no matter what he chose. When he looked to Sora and saw how the younger boy was smiling widely as a way to further encourage him to say yes, Peter felt that the answer was pretty obvious.

"Yes," Peter finally grinned. "Yes! Absolutely yes! I mean, I'll still have to keep up with my internship at ESU, and I'll have to give my two week's notice to the Bugle, assuming that what you're offering really does pay…"

"And it does, I can promise you that," Tony confirmed.

"Either way, yeah. I'd be honored," Peter confirmed with a smile. That drew cheers from both his friends and some of the Avengers, namely Sora and Wasp, and he could have sworn he heard the sounds of Yuffie celebrating from another room, but there were still a few things left for him to do. "Now if you all will excuse me, I think I need to go and call my aunt. No doubt she's freaking out over the fact that I've disappeared for a few days."

"Oh crap! My parents aren't probably doing any better," Miles groaned.

"Hey, at least your dad can't send out every cop in the NYPD to search for you and then probably lock you up until he's absolutely sure that you're safe again," Gwen reminded Miles.

"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, you three! You don't need to worry about your parents or guardians! You've only been gone for a day, and I already called to let everyone know that you decided to spend the night here after your study session ran late," Tony reassured them.

"What? But…we were on Spira for way longer than that! How can we have only been gone for a day," Miles protested.

"Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the whole thing about time differences between worlds," Sora sheepishly asked his friends, earning another round of laughter from the Avengers.

For the rest of the day, Miles, Gwen, and Sora kept themselves busy studying their school notes like they had originally agreed to doing, and after getting a personal tour of the mansion's state of the art labs and doing some work in those labs with Tony, Peter finally joined them in that study session. Of course, that was after he showed off that Tony helped him to make a more refined version of the new web-shooter designs that he and Rikku came up with on Spira, along with finalizing the necessary adjustments to his new suit, but all-in-all, they would all agree that today had been one that none of the Midtown students were going to forget any time soon.

* * *

A few hours after all the excitement that had gone down at Avengers Mansion saw Gwen reading peacefully in her room, happily thinking over everything that had happened in the last few hours. Sure, it may have been several days on Spira, but Gwen could still hardly get over the fact that it had only been twenty four hours here on Earth. Not that she was complaining, mind you, because she was definitely glad that she had not vanished for long enough of a time for her dad to completely freak out, or for New York to freak out over the disappearance of one of its most dedicated superheroes. Thinking of that part in particular brought a smile to Gwen's face, as she could still barely believe how she never once figured out sooner that her best friend was Spider-Man. It also made her feel a little bad about how she had laughed at the idea when all those reporters were accusing Peter of that fact several months ago because of what Venom had told the Bugle, but she was not focusing on that detail. If anything, she was just happy that Peter had finally told her the truth about all of that. It made her feel like she had just gained a much more special place in the world that Peter had entered into ever since he was bit by that spider, and that made her think about the kiss that they had shared earlier. Sure, it might have been wrong of her to kiss Peter while she was still dating Harry, but at the same time, Gwen was not going to deny how good it felt.

Speaking of Harry, she was now very sure that something was wrong with her so-called "boyfriend," and since others now knew about that suspicion, along with information about what he had been doing to her lately, Gwen had a feeling that she would be able to get to the bottom of that all the sooner. Sure, she knew that part of it would likely lead to her breaking up with Harry, and she was a little saddened by that, but she could not keep lying to him and pretending like her feelings for Harry were really as deep as he claimed his were. It just was not fair to her or Harry. Like Sora and Peter said, it was time that she let others in so that she could live the life that she wanted and find a way to get Harry the help that he really needed after she made it clear that they needed to end things between them.

She probably would have called him up right away, not feeling like she could do it face-to-face on her own, but before she could, she got a text message from her friend Mary Jane. She sent a quick reply and then moved to set her phone aside so that she could think of a way to gently break things off with Harry. What she did not expect was for her phone to not stay on her bedside table, but instead, remain in her hand without her even trying to hold it. She shook her hand a little, trying to get the phone off of her, but her eyes only widened as she saw that the device was actually sticking onto her hand with her doing anything. When she finally did get the phone off, she turned to see that her book was actually stuck on her other hand, and she then began to push against it in order to get it off.

Gwen did succeed in getting the book off of her hand, but in the process, she did not realize that she would end up tumbling back into the wall. More than that, she soon found that she had not just rolled across the floor, but that she had also somehow sprung up onto the wall directly behind her. Looking back at the wall and down at herself, Gwen immediately recognized her position as being similar to one she had seen Peter assume various times when he was perched on a wall, and she slowly turned herself around so that she could try something. With that done, she slowly placed one hand in front of the other, then the other in front of that hand, all while slowly moving her feet along the wall at the same time as she crawled along the wall like it was the floor, until finally, she came to a stop on the ceiling, and remained there, unable to move at all.

Looking down from where she had stuck, Gwen's eyes had become as wide as dinner plates, and her mind was quickly beginning to go blank in a fit of panic as her voice seemed to go mute. When she finally did find the ability to speak again, she could only think of one thing to call out. "D-Dad…DAD," Gwen shouted, prompting one George Stacy to come running into his daughter's room. When he did not immediately see Gwen anywhere in the room, Gwen called down, "Up here." That got George's attention, and his eyes to go as wide as Gwen's just were, even as she gave him some very simple instructions. "I'm gonna need you to call a friend of mine. I think there might be something wrong with me."

* * *

 ** _AN: Well, that was pretty unbelievable, huh? We all learned the truth about Yuna's secret plan, Night Hunter outed Seymour's plan, the heroes stopped all the bad guys and saved the day, Tidus got a proper chance to say goodbye to his dad, Gwen and Peter finally revealed the reasons behind their tension with each other (while we also got to see a little Peter &Gwen moment too), and look at that, Spidey's now a reserve member of the Avengers! And a lot sooner than he had been made in the canon version of EMH at that. Plus, he's got him a new suit to go along with it. Before anyone asks, Spider-Man's new suit is in fact his suit from Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming, and yes, the Stark Internship thing is also inspired by that same matter in the MCU._**

 ** _Spider-Man: Uh, can we just talk about that little expose we had regarding Gwen's relationship with Harry, and more? I thought you said Sora was going to help Harry get his head on straight again?_**

 ** _AN: I never said that it was going to be as easy as him just talking the guy down, did I? Yeah, Harry's been hitting Gwen. Be honest, did you really think that it could've been anything else? I mean, I get that Harry's not usually depicted as someone who would do that, but at the end of Spectacular Spider-Man's second season, the guy did come off as turning into a total punk, to put it nicely, so I just went what I thought would be the most logical route with that. Plus, I felt it necessary to give that little history lesson to Sora because 1) he didn't really know anything about any of that, and 2) it also served as a little background info for anyone who has not seen that amazing show! No pun intended. Don't worry, Gwen won't be taking Harry's crap anymore, and from the look of things, she's got a few new talents to help prove that point._**

 ** _Yeah, you weren't imagining things at the end there. If this whole arc were a movie, that bit at the end there would've been the Post-Credits scene, and I can confirm right now that it is proof that Gwen now has spider-powers, as if that wasn't already obvious? I'm sure we've all figured out why she now has powers, assuming you were all paying attention to how things unfolded in the battle against Seymour. Guess you can all tell who's going to show up soon just from that, huh?_**

 _ **Now, on the matter of things that played out on the Final Fantasy X side of the story. First off, in the original version of the story, Seymour did not kill Yunalesca, and Yuna and her guardians ended up fighting her in Zanarkand, while the reveal about the Final Aeon was given by some dead guy who was Yunalesca's servant or something. They did fight against Seymour at least one more time before the final battle with Sin, but it was in an entirely different location, and it was not nearly the same as here. I wanted to go with something that combined Seymour's natural talents and abilities in the game with the powers he acquired here when I did that battle, and what you saw here was the end result. Hope it was to everyone's satisfaction.**_

 _ **Next change was how things played out with the final battle against Sin. Yeah, there were a lot more changes here from canon, and to go over all of them would probably take up all of our time here today, so I'll just try to keep it as brief as possible, and on all the important stuff. Yes, there was a fight against Jecht, or rather, his Final Aeon form, and Tidus and Jecht did have a similar conversation to the one that they had here, which was very touching and bittersweet in its own way, but Jecht was not the one who came up with the way to win once and for all. That was actually the spirits that lived within the fayth, which relayed the plan through Bahamut's fayth. Still, I needed to come up with some way for that idea to be given, and that was the best option, plus it also gave Jecht a little more purpose here than he had in the original canon. Not that I had a problem with Jecht's original role, but I felt like I needed to make it a little more important this time around.**_

 _ **Another big change was that Sin was only just the armor of the true evil, while the big bad in question was revealed to be the spirit of a summoner named Yu Yevon that refused to move on to the next life. Big shocker, huh? A lot of folks on Spira seem to like being dead but not sent on to the next life, despite the fact that the dead are supposed to turn into fiends when they are unsent. Talk about crazy.**_

 _ **Tidus: To put it mildly. And can I just say that I'm glad you didn't make me suffer my canon fate this time around?  
**_

 _ **AN: You can, and did. Yes, in the canon story, Tidus was actually just a dream of the fayth, and by defeating Sin in the method that they had, the fayth's dream ended, and that means...well, Tidus go bye-bye. Poor Yuna. [cries a little bit for Yuna before straightening up seconds later] But on the bright side, that didn't happen here, since Tidus is not a dream of the fayth, but a former citizen of Destiny Islands. And yeah, he and Wakka are staying put on Spira, even if the Islands do come back. That won't change when Destiny Islands returns, but I can promise that they're going to find a way to go back and forth between their old home and their new one sooner or later, and without the use of Sora's Keyblade magic.**_

 _ **Wakka: Well that's good news. I'd hate to have to choose between one world or the other, especially since there's so much on Spira that makes it feel more like home for Yuna and Lulu in this story. But did Auron really have to be sent, too?**_

 _ **AN: Honestly? Yeah, kinda, and yes, this was a detail from the canon version of Final Fantasy X that went unchanged. I wanted to have that happen so that it would still be possible for Auron to show up later on Olympus Coliseum, assuming that I went with that version of the story later on in this series, so it's only natural that I have Yuna send Auron along with all the spirits of the fayth. Now, everything's set up so that when the heroes ever return to Spira, they will likely come across the Gullwings, and while it may even be an entirely new version of them, I can promise that they will still be really similar to the one from canon.**_

 _ **Speaking of Final Fantasy X stuff, if you want all the Al Bhed translations that were not given...please just look it up in a translator program online or something, because it took me forever to find all of that myself, and I'm too pooped to bother with going into detail on the exact meanings at this point, at least in regards to the stuff that was not translated in the story.**_

 _ **Now, let's get you guys on over to the part of these ending notes that you all really look for when you read this part of the story. Onto the Preview!...**_

 ** _Upon receiving a call for help from Captain Stacy, Sora and Peter find out that Gwen has somehow gained spider-powers of her own, and they both quickly come to the same conclusion as to how it's possible. Now, with Peter helping to coach her in how to control her powers, Gwen wants to do whatever she can to join Peter in his crime-fighting crusade, even going so far as to pitch a few costume ideas to Janet, but Peter is more than a little hesitant on that idea. Sora seems to be just as against this, but something a little more important comes to their attention when one of NYPD's finest calls in a report on a crime that seems a little too similar to something that Green Goblin used to pull. Has Harry finally fallen into the same pits of insanity that his father had, and just what will our heroes be willing to do in order to solve the mystery whether he has or hasn't? A new hero is about to start spinning her web of heroics, in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Yeah, you heard it here, we're diving more into Spider-Man's corner of the Marvel universe, and going along with this story's version of Spider-Gwen's origin story! You may be surprised by how many things change or stay the same from what we've seen before, along with who else will show up in the story during that time. And that's not all that's going to happen, in case you haven't already guessed that yet, but I will go ahead and warn you all that it may be a little while before I update any stories again, seeing as I'm going to be going on vacation for a little bit, but don't worry, once I'm back home again, I will have a few new updates out as soon as possible, so until then..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


	13. Spider-Gwen Begins

**_Weiss: [on the phone] Studio of lyokoMARVELanime, please hold. Studio of lyokoMARVELanime, please hold. Mister Tennyson, you'll be happy to know that lyokoMARVELanime will in fact be able to hold your meeting with him, but he does hope you'll avoid using certain...transformations during the meeting at all times. And if that isn't the case, he wishes to inform you that a power dampening system will be activated to prevent any and all transformations, even if they are made using technology. Thank you..._**

 ** _AN: [walks into the room, only to pause when he sees who's sitting at the desk] Uh, Weiss? What're you doing?_**

 ** _Weiss: Hm? Oh, one moment. [turns back to the phone] Studio of lyokoMARVELanime, please hold. [puts most recent caller on hold before turning her attention to author] Well, I noticed that your secretary was out for the day, so I figured I should take it upon myself to help ensure that all operations at your studio were running smoothly. After all, fantasy studio or not, you can't be expected to keep this place operational at all times alone._**

 ** _AN: Uh, that's very nice of you, Weiss, but..._**

 ** _Weiss: It was no trouble really. You don't need to thank me. I'm just doing my part to help out._**

 ** _Ruby: She's actually just doing this in the hopes that it'll get us to appear in one of your stories sooner, or that you'll actually start up a full-fledged RWBY story of any kind._**

 ** _Weiss: Ugh! You can't prove that!_**

 ** _AN: Guys, really, I appreciate the help, whether the reasons are selfish or unselfish, but...Wait, Ruby, what're you doing here?_**

 ** _Ruby: Oh, just hanging out with Sora and the rest of the KH cast. If our earliest appearance is going to be in one of your Kingdom Hearts stories, then I thought we should get to know our future costars._**

 ** _AN: Okay, sure._**

 ** _Weiss: Now then, I believe that I have a few more calls to answer, along with some files to organize for you, so..._**

 ** _AN: Weiss! I'm sure you mean well, but..._**

 ** _Ruby: Uh, shouldn't you be in the interview room right now?_**

 ** _AN: [turns to look at the clock Ruby's pointing to] Crap! You're right! Come on! To the secret roller coaster! [rushes over to the nearby entrance to said coaster with Ruby stopping at the entrance controls] Pull the lever, Ruby!_**

 ** _Ruby: [pulls the lever, only to slam back into the wall to avoid being hit by a large statue of Sora that had dropped down on the author from somewhere above him] Whoa! Where did that even come from?_**

 ** _AN: [muffled, pained voice] Um, other lever maybe?_**

 ** _Ruby: Got it. [pulls the other lever and gets spun around onto the roller coaster with AN, which immediately takes off as soon as their in]_**

 ** _[roller coaster carries Ruby and author through several spin and turns at high speed until it suddenly comes to a stop]_**

 ** _Announcer: Your ride has come to a temporary stop, and will resume momentarily._**

 ** _Ruby: [waiting for a few minutes] Hey, what's the point of these secret passages, anyway?_**

 ** _AN: I just felt like it, really. And it serves as a great way of avoiding Deadpool if he ever finds his way back in here._**

 ** _Ruby: And this roller coaster one?_**

 ** _AN: Eh, it's just for fun._**

 ** _[ride resumes until dropping both author and character into the interview room]_**

 ** _AN: Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait, but we're finally back with the next chapter in the first story of the Kingdom Marvels series!_**

 ** _[audience applause]_**

 ** _Ruby: Oooh! I can't wait to see what happens! This is so exciting!_**

 ** _Wasp: She does know she's not in this story, right? And what is she even doing here?_**

 ** _Sora: She was hanging out with me and the rest of the KH Crew. You know like Kairi, Xion, or my boys. [turns to wave at the other KH guys] Yo boys!_**

 ** _Iron Man: Yeah, Sora. Do us a favor, and never talk like that again. It doesn't really feel natural or like you._**

 ** _Sora: And yet watching videos of Star Wars characters in like Darth Vader, the Stormtroopers, and Chewbacca in a dance-off seems natural?_**

 ** _Spidey: He has a point._**

 ** _AN: Hey, Spider-Man! My man! Gotta say, I loved your new movie, Spider-Man Far From Home, and it's a good thing that this chapter was focused a lot on your end of the Kingdom Marvels spectrum, because I have had a lot of ideas centered around you lately._**

 ** _Spider-Man: You're too kind. But seriously, glad that you liked the movie, because it was great. I'm not too crazy about how my new suit at the end of the movie was red and black, you know, like Superior Spider-Man's suit was, but that's just a minor thing, and I'm glad to see that it has kicked off the new age of the MCU so well. Plus that mid-credits scene..._**

 ** _AN: I know, right?! Ahem, anyways...Let's answer some review before we get too much farther into it. First off, as a general response...Really? You guys really didn't catch the obvious hint on how Gwen got her spider powers? I mean, I made sure that the characters talked about it a lot in the previous chapter. Well, it'll be pointed out again here in today's chapter, so even if you didn't, it should become a lot more clear today._**

 ** _Oh, and "Dragon Rider 66", no, Spidey's suit technically doesn't have the Training Wheels Protocol, but it doesn't have all of the gadgets that he had in the movies either. If anything, it's more like a mix-and-mash of stuff he had in the movies recently and stuff he had in the PS4 Spider-Man video game, as we'll all see here today._**

 ** _"Soulofnone911", I'm afraid that the face-off with Kang won't be as dramatically different as that, but it will see at least one or two changes from what was canon in the Avengers EMH cartoon. Sorry, but no Young Avengers teams here just yet._**

 ** _In answer to your question "GuestWithIdeas", Sora's going to survive this series' version of the Infinity War, although it may end up being more of an Infinity Keyblade War, or by some other, more simple name here, and he will more than likely clash with Thanos at least once, so no worries there._**

 ** _To "Althea Sirius", specifically your question regarding the X-Men, this time around, I'm going to make it draw from only Wolverine and the X-Men when we get to that point. I already had a mix-and-match version in my Code Avengers series, so I figured this time around, I'd just go with an X-Men set up that drew from one series as opposed to two._**

 ** _Now, "Kahili", we won't actually see the 358/2 Days saga, at least in its entirety as it happens here, but Roxas, Xion, and the Organization will be a big influence on the events that take place in the sequel to this story, make no mistake about that._**

 ** _Next review answer is for "Guest Isa"..._**

 ** _Roxas,Xion, &Axel: [all burst into the room, Roxas and Xion with weapons and glares ready, while Axel just looks around hopefully with one chakram out] WHERE?!_**

 ** _AN: Again, not that Isa, you guys. A guest reviewer._**

 ** _Roxas,Xion, &Axel: Oh. [calm down]_**

 ** _AN: Good grief. Ahem, as I was saying, yes, we will go through season 2 of EMH and past that into this series' own version of KH3, which will include a few Marvel-based elements as well._**

 ** _Now to wrap it up to the reviewer "AvidReader". I know, you're probably not going to see this one, since you've claimed that you've stopped reading it, but I still felt like I need to address your issues with the story all the same. That and the fact that even negative criticism is always good to have in its own way is a big reason why your review was not deleted. The reason why Sora's allowed on the Avengers' adventures is because 1) he's one of their most powerful members, without even realizing it, and they need all hands on deck for most of their situations. And 2) two words: The Heartless. There's always a chance that the team is going to run into those things no matter what mission they go on, as evidenced by how they encountered the Heartless during their confrontations with Enchantress and Zemo, and since Sora's Keyblade is the only thing that can truly destroy them, they don't really have a choice but to bring him. Add in the fact that they could stumble upon the Keyhole at any time, and it only makes sense to bring him along instead of just making an extra trip later on and risking the Heartless getting to it while their making the extra trips. Besides, don't forget, that he was allowed to tag along on a lot of dangerous adventures in the canon timeline too, even when there were actual adults around, so that argument seems a little moot. As for the fact that the first incident with Night Hunter happened at the same time as the Wonder Man incident...well, the alternative was to just write a whole chapter where the only difference was that Sora was just there. Sure, I could've changed it up like I did in my Code Avengers series, but that just felt a little cheap in my opinion, and like there wouldn't be enough for Sora to really do there. The only change would've been that Sora joined in on the final fight, and that would've barely made for more than a few paragraphs, if anything._**

 ** _Moving on to the other complaint, it's not really intentional for Sora to come off as preachy, and I'm not trying to make him seem like a jerk who's belittling the losses of others by bringing up his own, but you have to remember, it's Sora. He makes friends and does his best to help them out wherever he goes and without even trying, so of course he's going to give a few speeches about stuff like that a lot. Sorry if it's not coming off that way, but it was my intention for him to seem like the good friend he normally is. Plus, I wouldn't say everyone's sharing everything right at the tip of a hat. In most cases, it takes at least a few chapters, between which there is usually a time-skip of a few days, or weeks, depending on the chapter and what happens in between. I hope you can take all of that into account and keep with this story for a little longer, despite whatever grievances you have. I promise, things do get better as the story goes on._**

 ** _Hawkeye: Sheesh, anyone else think that guy might've been a little unnecessarily harsh?_**

 ** _Gwen: Who, lyoko or the reviewer?_**

 ** _Hawkeye: The reviewer._**

 ** _AN: Maybe, but like I said, negative criticism can be just as beneficial as positive. I personally like to believe that there's no such thing as a bad review in most cases._**

 ** _Ant-Man: Too bad the rest of the world doesn't share that kind of belief._**

 ** _AN: Well, you can't change everyone's opinions to match your own. The world would be really dull and boring if that were the case. Now then, I think we've wasted enough time, so let's get on with the main event that everyone's been waiting for: the rise of Spider-Gwen!_**

 ** _I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter XIII**

When Sora awoke the day after they had all gotten back from Spira, he was expecting, nay, hoping that he would be able to sleep in until almost noon at least. Heaven knows, he certainly was exhausted enough by the time the previous day had ended, but apparently, the universe had other plans for him, starting with a call from Gwen. More accurately, Sora had been awoken by a call from Gwen's dad, who was using her phone. Sora figured that the man was using his friend's phone since it would have been easier than just dialing the number on his own phone as Gwen recited it or something, but his curiosity about that was silenced when Captain Stacy said that he needed to get to the Stacy household with Spider-Man as soon as possible. Just from that one comment, Sora figured that it probably had to do with the double dose of reflect spells that Gwen and Peter were hit with, so he wasted no time in calling up Peter and relaying the message from the police captain to him, even as he was slipping into his usual daily outfit.

A few hours later, both Keyblade Samurai and Spider-Man were on the doorstep of Gwen's house, with the former knocking on the door to let the residents know that they had arrived. Peter felt a little uncomfortable going into a place like this, partly because he normally visited Gwen's house as Peter, and partly because he would not usually use the front door to get into a place as Spider-Man, or at least not in this manner. The only reason he was doing so this time was because Sora had insisted in on the grounds that it would save them the trouble of freaking out Gwen's dad. Peter had wanted to rebuke that claim by telling Sora that Captain Stacy was one of the hardest people to shake he had ever met, but they had already arrived on the doorstep and the younger hero had already knocked by the time he had opened his mouth.

A few minutes later, George Stacy himself opened the door, and while he did look very worried, he still managed to smile just a little when he saw who was at the door. "Normally I'd be thinking that at least one of you was someone pretending to be Spider-Man for some reason that's less than honest, but seeing as the other person is identical a picture on Gwen's phone, I'm a little less skeptical," the police captain informed the two. They took that as their cue to come in, but they were still stopped when the man raised a single hand, indicating that he still had something else to add. "But just to be sure, I'd still like to ask that the one in the Spider-Man suit answers a simple question that only he would know the answer to."

"Is that really necessary? I mean, from what Sor…uh, Keyblade Samurai said, it sounds like this is really serious," Spidey commented, making Sora roll his eyes at the web-head's correction. Clearly Peter had forgotten that Sora did not actually have a secret identity and thus, did not need to use his hero name.

"I believe it is," George easily countered. "So…what warning did I give you during one of our first real conversations?"

Thinking back to that moment, his mind quickly going to his first encounter with the Chameleon and in the earliest of his days wearing the symbiote suit, Spider-Man was able to figure out the answer very easily, and quoted, "'As long as you wear a mask, some folks will always wonder.'"

George smiled in satisfaction when he heard that, and then let the boys in. Of course, he continued to surprise them after he closed the door and said, "Of course, I'm not one of those folks anymore, or at least I don't think I am anymore. After that whole mess with Venom, I admitted that I started thinking that maybe a man in a mask doesn't have something to hide, but something to protect. A sentiment that I recall you agreeing with, Peter."

That made both boys freeze up, and Spidey quickly stuttered, "Uh…With all due respect, Captain Stacy, but I'm pretty sure that all the rumors about me being Parker were debunked, so I'm actually a little hurt that you would start believing that again."

To his surprise, George actually started smirking a little bit when he crossed his arms and pointed out, "I never said that I thought your name was Parker. Just Peter, and even then, I was a detective long before I was the police captain, son. I was able to put together a few clues. Most people would have just overlooked them or missed it, but then again, I do happen to know my daughter's best friend, so I was able to notice a little more easily."

Backtracking a little to run the police captain's words through his head a little, Peter realized that George was right, and he let out a defeated sigh before he removed his mask, glad that all the windows in the Stacy house were closed at the moment so no one could see inside. "How long have you known, anyway?"

"I'll admit that the suspicions did somewhat start during that whole fiasco where the Bugle had printed that story about you being Spider-Man, but really, the first time I started drawing up conclusions was last New Year's Eve when Doc Ock launched his little master plan. I kept it all to myself though, mainly because of the reasons that I just mentioned, and because I felt that it didn't really matter who you were behind that mask. Spider-Man may not always have the best reputation, be it in the press or among the people in general, but if there's one constant that I've always seen about you, Peter, it's that you give people hope. You save lives even when no one else thinks they can be saved, and you do it without asking for any kind of reward or thanks. That's something that this city has needed for a long time now," George explained, his words showing just how highly he thought of both the web-head and Peter. He then gained a playful look in his eyes as he added, "Besides, you did save my daughter's life on more than one occasion, and my own life once or twice now, so I'd say that I owe you more than a few favors for that."

Peter was able to pick up on the fact that George was only partially joking on that last bit, so he could not help but smile a bit as he nodded his thanks to the man. Sora was happy about this too, but if you were to ask him, this did not seem as important as the reason why they were here. "So, not to break up the moment, but didn't you call saying that Gwen was in some kind of trouble or something?"

"Well I wouldn't say she was in trouble, but something has happened to Gwen, and she insisted that you might have some answers on what it was, or at least what the cause of it was," George clarified. He then motioned for the two boys to follow him upstairs, and they both quickly marched after him. "By the way, Peter, I like the new suit."

"Thanks," Peter nodded as they stepped into Gwen's room. It had been a long time since Peter was last in here, but from what he could tell, not much had really changed. In fact, the only difference he really saw was that her glasses case was no longer on her bedside table like it used to be when she was always wearing them, but there was one other thing that he could not help but notice was missing, and that was the room's occupant. "Uh…Gwen? Are you in here?"

"Yeah, and why are you wearing that Spider-Man costume, Peter? Don't you know it's not Halloween yet," Gwen's voice questioned, surprising both boys. Still, they were impressed by her quick thinking in coming up with a cover story for Peter's secret identity.

"It's okay, Gwen. He actually knows," Sora revealed, somehow managing to keep some of his composure despite being startled. That did not stop him from trying to figure out where Gwen was.

"Wait. You knew and you didn't tell me," Gwen snapped at her father, clearly upset by the fact.

"Don't you give me that look Gwendolyn Stacy," George warned, smiling all the while as both boys tried to locate his daughter. "I figured it out a while back, but I kept it to myself because I was sure he had reasons for not telling anyone. It wasn't my secret to tell, so I wasn't going to say anything unless he did."

"Okay, whoa, hold on," Peter interrupted before the debate could go on anymore than necessary. "Gwen, where are you?"

"Um, up here," Gwen replied a little weakly, and both Peter and Sora turned their gaze to the ceiling, and to the shocking sight of Gwen sitting up there like Peter often would. "Yeah, it's pretty crazy, right? I mean, probably not for you, Peter, but for me…"

"Yeah, not that crazy Gwen," Sora stated as calmly as he could while summoning out his Keyblade just to prove the point. He then gave her a more confused look before he asked, "How long have you been up there?"

"All night," Gwen admitted with the best shrug she could manage, and she was soon making a show of the fact that she was in fact stuck where she was. "I can't get down at all, and I'm a little worried that I might accidentally break something if I try pulling or pushing any harder than I already have. I'm not sure what's more surprising. That I was even able to get myself up here from the wall that I first ended up stuck to, or that the blood hasn't started rushing to my head after hanging upside down for hours on end."

"Yeah, I'd go with the first one," Peter suggested. "It's actually pretty normal to not get dizzy from blood rushing to your head while you're upside down for a long period of time. I could actually go for days like that if I wanted to. Not that I ever have."

That got a small bit of laughter from anyone, making the situation a little less tense, until George asked the all important question. "Any chance you can help her get down?"

"Not a problem," Peter replied, and the next thing anyone knew, he was up on the ceiling with Gwen. "All right, Gwen, let's see if we can at least maneuver you to where you're above the bed."

"I'm not sure if I can," Gwen hesitantly countered, once again pointing out that she was stuck where she was.

"Hey, don't worry. I had the same problem at first," Peter promised. "It's no different than when you're learning to walk. Just put one hand over the other, relax, and then release."

"If you say so," Gwen humored him as she tried to pry one of her hands off the wall again. She paused in her efforts though when she heard Peter's web-shooters going off, and looked down to see that he had spun up a quick web net beneath them, running along the path to her bed.

"Just in case," Peter reassured her when she looked at him for explanation. When Gwen tried to move again but ended up struggling to get unstuck, Peter figured they might as well skip over moving along the ceiling for now, and get her on the ground again. "Okay, forget moving for now. Let's just get you down."

"I've been trying for hours, Peter," Gwen almost growled at her friend, still trying to pull her hands free.

"No, no, no! Don't actually try to do it," Peter immediately waved off, earning him another look from Gwen. "It's all an instinct that you have to trust in. Just relax your fingers, and live in the moment."

"I am living in the moment. It's a terrible moment where I'm stuck on my bedroom ceiling," Gwen disputed, clearly getting annoyed.

Peter was starting to get pretty frustrated as well, but he kept his cool, and kept it up with his coaching, not noticing how Sora had pulled out his Kingdom Caller to make a quick call. "It's okay, Gwen. Just take a deep breath and think of…of doing some easy Chem. Lab work, or just anything else that you would do to relax."

Following Peter's advice, Gwen inhaled slowly and then breathed out, thinking of the very things that Peter told her to, until, one by one, her fingers started to get unstuck from where they were on the ceiling. When her last finger came free, Gwen came with it, and she likely would have crashed to the floor had it not been for the safety net that Peter had spun out from his web-shooters earlier. "Whoa! That was crazy," Gwen panted in disbelief as George and Peter helped her to her feet. "And probably going to take some getting used to."

"Assuming you even _have_ to get used to it. I mean, how's it even possible that you have these powers to begin with," Peter questioned.

"I think I might have a hunch," Sora revealed, reminding everyone that he was still there. "Remember when we were fighting Seymour, and you guys both got hit by those two reflect spells?"

"Yeah," both teens nodded, while George just looked between the three, not really knowing what they were talking about.

Sora made a note to fill him in on as much as they could later, and continued, "Lulu said that there was no way of knowing what would happen after having two reflect spells mix together like that. What if the mixing actually caused your powers to be copied onto Gwen?"

"That seems like a bit of a stretch, Sora, and a little too easy of an explanation," Peter countered. He was not ruling it out completely, but it did make some sense in a weird way.

"Well it's not like we have any better ideas, or know a magic expert that can confirm it one way or another," Gwen pointed out.

"Actually, I do, and while you were busy getting down from the ceiling, I gave him a call to see if he could come lend a hand. Lucky for us he happens to be close by, so he should be here any minute," Sora revealed.

Any minute turned out to be any second, because just after Sora had finished talking, a cylinder of light suddenly appeared in the middle of the group, and from that cylinder came the court magician of Disney Castle himself, looking a bit ruffled as usual. "What's the big idea, Sora," Donald squawked in demand, not noticing the wide-eyed looks he was getting from the Marvel-topia natives. "Goofy and I were just on the trail of a clue to where the king could be when you called!"

"Sorry Donald, but this is really important, and you're the only one I know that could give us a hand with it," Sora replied, gesturing to his friends as he spoke.

Donald looked over the three for a minute, and then turned to ask Sora for more details, while Peter just looked between Gwen and her father in pure bewilderment. Finally, he just could not hold it in anymore, and had to ask, "You guys both see Donald Duck too, right? It's not just me?"

"Nope, I see him," Gwen confirmed in disbelief.

"I'm still in the process of convincing myself not to go over and try to see if he's just a guy wearing a costume," George admitted.

"Okay. Glad to hear I'm not going any crazier than I already have, at least," Peter lightly sighed in slight relief.

* * *

It took a while to convince Peter and the Stacys that Donald Duck was indeed very real and standing in the room with them, but that was also because that they made it a point to take several pictures with the famous cartoon character just so that they could prove to themselves that the whole thing was not a dream when they woke up the next day. Add in the fact that Donald's sudden appearance also meant that they had to explain a few secrets about other worlds to Gwen's dad, and it was no wonder that Donald was a little grumpy as he waved his wand around Gwen to better study the residual magic that was still left over on her after she and Peter were struck by that the two reflect spells the other day. Everyone was watching with baited breath, while Gwen herself was finding it hard to relax, despite Donald's constant insistence that she at least try to do so, and you could just feel the tension in the air from the worry that was being held for the blonde girl.

"Well," Peter asked after another five minutes had gone by.

"Shh! I need another moment," Donald quickly hushed before going back to his analysis.

The quiet returned to the room for only two more minutes. This time though, it was Sora who broke the silence. "Anything yet?"

"Shush! Give me a little more time," Donald repeated, sounding a bit more annoyed this time.

The silence did not last nearly half as long this time, but it was understandable that George was the next one to break it, considering this was his daughter that was getting examined. "Have you…"

"I SAID TO BE QUIET AND WAIT," Donald angrily shouted before the police captain could finish. "How am I supposed to do any kind of magical analysis if you palookas can't keep your mouths shut?!"

"Sheesh. He's just as short-tempered in person as he is in the cartoons and movies," Peter whispered to George, to which the man could only nod in agreement.

"Honestly, I feel like he's bit better than that," Sora disputed, trying to defend the magician. From the looks on the others' faces, he clearly was not doing so well, and he could not help but add, "Okay, maybe just marginally better."

"I heard that," Donald snapped before he went back to work. This time, everyone stayed quiet until Donald finally dismissed his staff to the pocket dimension he normally kept it in, and made his report. "Yep, the spell definitely caused Peter's powers to be copied onto Gwen, and if what I can tell is accurate, her new powers are exactly the same as his."

"Yeah, we got that part. What I want to know is whether this is gonna be a permanent thing or not," Peter pointed out.

"That makes two of us," George agreed.

"Three, actually," Gwen confessed.

"Well…that's hard to say," Donald shrugged. "Combined reflect spells often lead to results that can last for an unpredictable amount of time, depending on what it is they cause to happen. While other magic elements are easy to figure out, it takes a great deal more to determine the length of time the results that two combined reflect spells will last in a subject."

Coming from anyone else, that would have been easy to figure out and understand, but coming from Donald Duck, the others had a hard time puzzling together what he had said. Of course, some of them were a bit hesitant to ask him to repeat himself, but Sora was not one them. "Uh…run that by us again, please?"

Donald let out a lengthy sigh, having been well-aware of how hard it was for some people to understand him for a very long time now, and decided to simplify it for the three humans. "Basically, I need to perform a certain test to figure out how long it'll be before her powers wear off, assuming they will at all."

The magician then re-summoned his staff, and waved it around while he chanted an incantation under his breath. As he did, the others could only watch as a rainbow of colors appeared around Gwen's body in several different rings. Donald continued his magic work without pause after the rings had materialized, and as his chanting continued, they all saw some of the rings and colors begin disappearing one at a time. Finally, when Donald stopped his incantation, only three rings remained, and they were divided up into the colors of red, blue, and white, with a faint trace of black being mixed in on each of the rings in a striped pattern. When he saw this result, Donald's face turned slightly worried, and that made the three men's concerns grow a little more.

"What is it? What does that mean," George struggled to ask, worried about what could happen to his daughter.

"Well…Uh…" Donald hesitated to reply, but he knew that he would have to break the news to them somehow. "When the results come back like that it usually means that…it's permanent."

"You mean…there's no way for Gwen to get rid of her spider powers, or that they aren't going to just wear off after a while," Peter asked, just to clarify.

"Yes," was all Donald said in reply. He was not really sure if there was another way to get rid of Gwen's powers without magic, but he did not want to let the others know that. Besides, he did not have time to go into nitty-gritty details regarding this sort of thing. "Now, are we done here? Goofy and I need to get back to work in searching for the king, and I don't want to leave the gummi ship in orbit of this world for too long. They have way too many ways of finding stuff close to the world for my liking."

"Don't worry, Donald. I think we got it from here. Thanks for your help," Sora reassured his cartoon friend.

With one final nod to the Keybearer and the others, Donald radioed for Goofy to teleport him back to the ship, and in a flash of light, the court magician of Disney Castle was gone, likely back on his ship and ready to continue with the search he and his best friend were currently working on. Everyone was silent at that point, until Peter finally asked the all-important question. "So…what now?"

"What do you mean 'what now,'" Gwen questioned like it should have been obvious. When the others just looked at her with various forms of bewilderment, Gwen sighed and explained, "It should be obvious to Peter at the very least. I need to learn how to control these powers, and who better to teach me than the original wall-crawler himself?"

That did seem like a reasonable conclusion, there was one major concern that the others all shared, but only one of them was brave enough to ask it. "While I don't disagree with that, honey, I still have to ask what you plan to do once you have control of these new powers of yours," George informed his daughter.

Gwen could not help but smirk a little bit when she gave his reply, and she had to admit, the astonished looks on the other three's faces were actually pretty funny in her eyes. "Easy. Peter will get a new partner in crime fighting, because I'm going to start doing whatever I can to help Peter keep New York safe."

While Peter and George both found their faces frozen in the stunned looks of shock that had taken them over, Sora eventually managed to shake his off and asked, "So…do you plan to make your own suit, or should I give Janet a call?"

* * *

The four had ended up paying Janet a visit, at Gwen's insistence, and for the next several hours after that, the two girls were either hard at work drawing up sketches or studying various fabrics and color schemes for Gwen's costume. Of course, Peter had insisted that the material would need to be skin tight for when the blonde started web-swinging, and especially so on the palms of her hands and soles of her feet so that her adhesive powers would not be hindered, but that did not stop them from still looking at every type of fabric imaginable, which had made the whole process take a lot longer than George, Peter, or Sora felt was necessary. The other thing that made the whole process take so long was how the girls pondered away at finding the perfect costume design for Gwen. She made it very clear right from the start that she did not want to look like a female version of Spider-Man, so that immediately ruled out any ideas of the suit retaining the red and blue color scheme that Peter's had, but the real trick was finding something that would be unique and distinctly her. Obviously they needed to find some way to include the webs somewhere on the suit, and Gwen did say that she still wanted a spider emblem somewhere on her person to help make it clear that she was in fact a spider-powered hero, so by the time that the girls finally finished, half the day had already gone by, and Peter insisted that they spend the rest of it training Gwen on how to use her powers.

You would think that since he was now allowed to access to the facilities in Avengers Mansion, Peter would have brought Gwen down to the training room to help her practice, but they did not do that for two reasons. The first being that Peter felt it would be better for her to practice somewhere with that had a bit more open space, and that he could better help her figure things out in the city than he could in some room with a bunch of fancy machines. After all, he had to figure out his own limits with his powers without the need for special equipment, beyond what he could get access to at the time at least, so why try and do something different when he already knew what worked? The other reason was because Sora had insisted that using the training room to help Gwen get ready for hero duty was a bad idea, and after hearing the story about the Avengers first time running through the thing, Peter had to agree with him.

The only catch was that they could not afford for anyone to recognize Gwen on the off-chance she accidentally landed somewhere that people could see her face, and since Janet had admitted that it would take a couple of days or so for her to get Gwen's suit ready, they had to make do with whatever they could find at a moment's notice. Thankfully, Peter had kept his old suit and was able to lend her the mask from it, but Gwen had to cobble together the rest from what she could find in her closet. The end result was probably far more basic than what Peter had in mind for his first prototype costume. Going from top to bottom, Gwen's prototype suit was composed of Peter's old mask, a white, zip-up hoodie, the hood of which Gwen kept up at her insistence, a pair of black sweat pants, and a pair of light blue running shoes. The only other things she had on her were a pair of thin, white gloves, because Peter insisted that it would be better for Gwen to figure out how to use her powers at a reasonable level before he gave her a pair of web-shooters.

Sora and Gwen both had a feeling that there was more to it than that, especially with how often Peter was going off to whisper to Gwen's father about something while a concerned look had taken over George's face. In Gwen's eyes, it could not be more obvious that the two were going to do everything they could to discourage her from doing this, which only served to make her a little annoyed with the two, but Sora was of a different mind. From what he knew about Peter, he knew that the older boy was the type to always put others ahead of himself, and he had a feeling that Peter was going to try and use his little training exercises to prove to Gwen just how dangerous fighting crime with him could be. After all, there were more than a few times that Peter had tried to talk him out of being a hero, despite Sora always insisting that he had no choice, given how he was the only one capable of stopping the threat that the Heartless posed to all the worlds.

Speaking of the Heartless, Sora found it a little odd that the dwellers of darkness had not been seen on Marvel-topia that much lately. Sure, he had fought them a lot on other worlds, the most recent being Spira, but ever since Night Hunter's attack at Midtown, there had been little to no sign of the Heartless at all. It almost made him think that they were preparing for some major offensive, but then again, the Heartless were creatures of instinct, incapable of higher thought or planning, at least without any kind of master, and even then, there were still some that would break off from the larger pack to attack mindlessly. Either way, it was more than a bit suspicious to Sora that there had been no sightings of Heartless recently, so he had to assume that Night Hunter's control of the Heartless on this world was much stronger than any other, or that there were more people commanding the Heartless here than he originally thought. It certainly made sense, given that Enchantress and Zemo both showed the ability to control the Heartless when they appeared before the Avengers, and that made Sora a little worried about whatever was going to come for them next. Hence another reason why Sora felt that he needed to be here in order to help Gwen learn how to be a superhero. Sure, he did not like the idea of his friends risking their lives like this, but if it was their choice to help others, Sora felt like he had no place to say otherwise unless they did not really understand the risk. He had no intention of letting Gwen or Peter fight the Heartless again if he could help it, but it was still better to be prepared just in case.

For the rest of that day, Peter did his best to help Gwen better grasp her spider powers, and it proved to be a much easier task for her than it had for him since she had someone with experience to teach her. Thanks to Peter, Gwen was able to figure out how to turn her adhesive powers on and off without any trouble, and she was soon moving from scaling the walls of a small room to the inside of a large, empty warehouse, and eventually, even up the side of a building in downtown New York without trouble. Learning how to control her new-found spider strength proved to be a little more difficult, given that doing so was not something that could just be taught, but learned through practice and experience, but thankfully, Peter was able to help her figure that out before she accidentally crushed anyone's hand. Gwen just wished that she had done so before she accidentally crushed more than a few doorknobs, but there was no way she was going to say that being able to bend metal pipes with her bare hands was anything but cool.

Of course, Peter was not the only one who gave Gwen some pointers on being a crime fighter, as George was more than happy to teach Gwen a few more self-defense techniques that would help her to better fight. He also taught Peter a few things as well, and he made it a point to show them how to quickly disassemble certain firearms so that they would be unusable just in case. There were only so many times that Peter could just pull away and then web up a gun before someone figured out a way to use said guns even while they were ensnared in the webs. All of this and more had ended up lasting well into the night, and even into the next day. The only reason why it was not interfering with anyone's school work was because both George and Tony had called ahead to tell Sora, Peter, and Gwen's teachers that the three would all be absent for a variety of reasons. For Gwen, George said that she was sick, but for Peter and Sora, well, one of them was an Avenger while the other was now an intern at Stark Industries, so the excuses were a bit more obvious and easy. George did not really like having his daughter basically playing hooky, but if what Peter had said about his experiences in getting better control of his powers was any indication, it was probably for the best that Gwen learned to control her powers before she went back to class.

It did not end in just two days though, as evidenced by how that the training extended into a third day. That very morning actually saw George, Peter, Sora, Gwen, and Steve all gathered atop a short line of rooftops in New York, with Gwen standing at one end of the line with Peter, while George was at the other, and Sora and Captain America were positioned at different points in between them, each holding a control device for a series of tennis ball launchers that had been randomly positioned along the obvious path. "Alright Gwen, this one's going to be a little tougher than what we've done so far," Peter cautioned as he explained what she needed to do, all while Gwen adjusted the sleeves of her hoodie out of anxiousness. "The objective here is to get from this rooftop to the one that your dad's on by any means necessary."

"And what's the catch," Gwen asked, knowing that there was no possible way it was that simple.

"Simple: you can't get hit while you're going," Peter replied. He then waved over to where Sora and Hank were as he continued the explanation. "Sora and Cap will be using those launchers to try and hit you with rubber balls that you will need to dodge, and if you get hit so much as one time, you automatically fail."

"Seriously? I get hit once and I fail? I thought it was supposed to be three strikes and you're out," Gwen joked.

"Not when you're dodging knives and gunfire," Peter immediately rebuked his voice even and holding a very hard edge to it to show Gwen just how serious he was about this. He then turned a little sheepish as he amended, "Well, maybe knives, depending on where you get stabbed, but that's beside the point. The purpose behind this exercise is to help you get used to your new Spider-Sense, and learn how to react quickly enough so that you can let it guide you away from danger. The world's not going to suddenly slow down and wait for you to avoid certain attacks or hazards like it does in some video games, after all. You feel that tingle; you need to be ready to move however your Spider-Sense is telling you to right then and there."

"Yeah, I think you made that pretty clear when you tested me to see if I even have it," Gwen reminded him with a pointed look that Peter could feel through her borrowed mask.

"Ehehe…In my defense, it's not like I had Thor throw his hammer at you, or asked Sora to shoot you with fire or ice," Peter sheepishly chuckled.

"No, you just had my dad and Sora throw several paper balls at me out of nowhere without telling me in advance," Gwen grumbled. That experience may not have hurt her too much, but it did leave her feeling more than a little annoyed, especially since it was just to better test her new reflexes than anything else. At least, that was what Peter told her when they started. What he did not tell her was that Sora was going to throw in a few more at the last second when she thought they were finished, and he would have hit her had she not suddenly felt that tingle Peter always mentioned his Spider-Sense giving off when Sora had made the throw.

"Well, that was then, and this is to help you learn how to make quick adjustments on the fly, and in an open, real-world environment. Besides, the Spider-Sense does a lot more than sense when you're in danger," Peter went on to add.

"Yeah? Like what," Gwen asked, not to be rude, but honestly curious as to what else it could help her with.

"Uh, how do you think I almost always know where to shoot a web when I'm swinging through the city," Peter rhetorically asked. "Like I said, your Spider-Sense acts as a guide for your movements, even when it's not actively warning you about incoming danger. This is to help you get used to that guidance, both in terms of the subtle cues you get just when moving about, and in terms of dodging unexpected attacks."

"Okay. Let's do this," Gwen determined.

Peter gave a short nod before he slung himself over to where George was waiting at the finish line, and after giving Gwen a few more seconds to get herself ready, he gave her the signal to start. Gwen quickly figured out that it was not going to be easy to get through the course, as she was pelted with several rubber balls not even seconds after she had made it to the second rooftop. The exact same thing happened on her second attempt, albeit she did manage to dodge a few balls before she was knocked down. At that point, she was sure she had figured out what pattern the two Avengers were going for, and she was a lot more confident at the start of her third run. That confidence quickly vanished when she only noticed that there were much fewer rubber balls flying at her that time, but instead, they all came flying when she was halfway across the second rooftop.

When Gwen turned to glare at one member of the responsible party, Sora could only shrug with a grin in response as he asked, "What? Did you really think that it would be the exact same way every time?"

"No two situations are ever truly exactly the same, Miss Stacy," Captain America advised from where he was standing opposite of his younger teammate. "You need to approach every situation like it's an entirely new encounter."

"And besides, it wouldn't be a test of your Spider-Sense if you just had to memorize a specific pattern to get through like you would in some video game," Sora added.

While she could not stop herself from rolling her eyes at the two, Gwen would begrudgingly admit that they had a point. The point was further proven when she failed to get through at least seven more times, but with every failure, she was starting to recognize the signs of when her Spider-Sense was going off and attempting to direct her on where to go or how to move. So, on her eighth attempt, she made more of an effort to just ignore what she saw and heard, and let that strange tingle in her skull guide her. The end result was an incredible show of acrobatics across the rooftops, gymnastics that would be worthy of the World Olympics, and no matter how many times or how many angles that Sora and Cap shot at her from, she was able to avoid the flying spheres of rubber like it was nothing. After vaulting over a few air conditioners, flying between the legs of a water tower, and spinning around a flag pole, all while avoiding a series of launched balls like it was nothing, Gwen finally came to a stop before Peter and her dad, landing with perfect grace and a proud smile that was only invisible because of her borrowed mask.

"How do you like me, now," Gwen cheered, almost boastfully, thinking that she had mastered the whole thing. While her father grinned in approval, Peter's reaction was hard to gauge, mainly because she still could not see his face, and his body language was not giving anything away. Before she could ask what he thought, Gwen suddenly noticed that the tingling in her head had not stopped, but instead, was now buzzing a little more than it should have been. The next thing she knew, she heard a small beep, and several launchers she had not seen before were peppering her back with several rubber balls without pause. When it finally stopped, she looked to see that the thing that beeped was actually a remote that Peter was holding in his hand. "Did you…You shot me?!"

"Let that be a lesson for you. Even when you think it's over, there's always a chance that there's something else waiting to happen. If your Spider-Sense says that something else is going to come for you, then ninety-nine percent of the time, it's most likely going to happen," Peter simply replied, and he probably would have sounded a bit wise if Gwen were not so obviously pissed off. "Hey, it's just a few more rubber balls. You're acting like I shot you with arrows or something! I mean, we may heal faster than most people now, but that wouldn't be any excuse to be shooting you with a deadly weapon or something."

"This is ridiculous," Gwen groaned, and even Cap and Sora could hear the frustration in her voice as they made their way to the other three. "I've been doing practice drills and stupid training runs ever since we started. When am I going to do some actual superhero work?"

"When you're ready," Peter stated.

"And when will that be, Peter," Gwen questioned. "Next century? Maybe some time around Neverurary? You won't even let me have web-shooters, for crying out loud!"

"Because I want to be sure that you understand just what having these powers means," Peter tried to insist, but it was clear that Gwen was not going to listen right now. Then again, he was not really listening to her at the moment either, so it seemed to balance out.

"I get that it's a big deal, but you know I'm not like Flash and likely to flaunt my powers to the world just because," Gwen snapped.

"Now I think that might be a little insulting to Flash, considering he's not really like that anymore…Well, not that much," Peter attempted to joke.

"The point is that I'm never going to so much as pull a cat out of a tree if we keep going at the rate you've been dictating," Gwen countered. She then came to another conclusion as she accused, "Assuming you even plan on letting that happen at all. You just want to scare me away from all of this by doing all these dumb things."

"Are you serious? Gwen, of course I'm worried about you," Peter countered. "I care about you more than anything, and if you get hurt doing this, it will kill me more than anything that any bad guy could. That doesn't mean I'm going to try and trick you out of this with some underhanded trick like that."

"Then why not let me go on just one patrol with you," Gwen questioned.

"Because you're not ready," Peter almost shouted.

"And if you are the only judge on the matter, then I'll never be ready," Gwen retorted just as loudly.

"How are either of you supposed to really know for sure," Sora asked, getting the two's attention. They also took notice of the fact that George had silently excused himself to answer a phone call, or so it seemed, but they were a little more interested in what the two Avengers had to say. "Do you really think that I was ready for any of the stuff that I was going to have to deal with by getting the Keyblade, or by joining the Avengers?"

"Sora's right," Steve agreed. "Even I didn't know for certain if I was ready when I took the Super Soldier Serum back in the Forties, but I still went through with it all the same. Not only that, but my first real mission in the war, I had no clue if I was ready for anything, but whether I was or not didn't matter. All that mattered was the job at hand, so I just had to hope for the best and take a leap of faith. Sometimes, that's really all you can do, and all that it is."

Those words seemed to stew in the minds of the two spider-powered teens, but it did so especially for Peter. Hearing Cap mention that the whole thing was really as simple as a leap of faith reminded him of when he first started trying to get control his powers. Sure, his leap had him jumping off the roof of a building as part of a test-run for his first web-shooters, but the similarity was definitely there. More than that, it also made him start to wonder if making Gwen do all of this was keeping her from taking her own leap of faith. Glancing to the girl he loved so much, he could tell that she was definitely frustrated, but more than that, she was still standing as strong and confident as ever. If that was not proof that she wanted and felt ready to do this and enter the insanity that came with the other half of his double life, then it was hard to really know what else could be.

He was about to get a chance to really test whether or not it was time for Gwen to take that leap when George suddenly got off of his phone and came back over to the group, a look of urgency on his face. "Hey, I just got off the phone with some of the boys at the station," George informed the heroes. "A call just came in about a group of suspicious looking people moving what looked like some very impressive artillery over at the docks in Hell's Kitchen. I have an officer in the area who can investigate it, but I'd appreciate it if you could help out at the very least, Peter."

"Uh…Not that I don't appreciate you knowing my secret identity, Captain Stacy, or see a few benefits to having you on my side like this, but I don't think a simple investigation of suspicious people is something that would prompt you to call in Batman, Robin, and Batgirl," Spider-Man admitted.

Sora looked between the original spider-hero and Gwen for a few minutes, until he finally whispered to the blonde, "Should we take that as a compliment or an insult?"

"I'd go with compliment for now," Gwen suggested.

"The thing about those suspicious individuals, they were described as wearing masks that looked like jack-o'-lanterns. Sound familiar," George then asked.

That made the eyes on Peter's mask go wide, much like his actual eyes had, because that definitely sounded more than a little familiar. "I thought the old Gob-Squad had split up or just been arrested after what happened to Osborn."

"Most of them were, yes, but as for Goblin's weaponry and tech, we were never entirely sure if we got it all, or that we were able to find all of his stores. I've suspected that Oscorp found a way to clear it all out and dispose of everything before we could get it so that they could avoid any lawsuits, but there was always a chance that something else was going on," George revealed.

"Like that maybe some die-hard Pumpkin-heads had set up some private or exclusive stores that no one else knew about besides ol' Normmy," Peter filled in.

"Maybe, but that wouldn't explain why they would suddenly become active after all this time," George pointed out.

"Well, no one better to look into all of this than one of the foremost experts on all things Gobby. I'll swing over and have a look," Spider-Man determined. He glanced over to other heroes and asked, "You guys want in?"

Sora just smiled before he said, "Like I'm gonna say no?"

Peter could only chuckle in response, feeling like he should have known that would be Sora's answer, and he then turned to the super soldier among them. "I would, but I've got to hurry back to the mansion to take over on monitor duty for Hawkeye."

"Even Earth's mightiest heroes have take on the most boring of jobs, eh," George lightly joked, getting an amused chuckle from the army captain soon after.

Peter looked to Gwen and then asked, "So, you really want to find out if you're really ready?"

"Seriously," Gwen asked.

"Well, only if you can keep up," Peter challenged with a smirk that obvious even through his mask. "Don't worry; Sora will make sure to slow his pace so that you know which way to go."

A minute later, the two captains were watching as the three kids took off for their destination. The leader of the three doing so via his trademarked web-swinging, the second boy flying a short distance behind on his Keyblade Glider, and the lone girl of the three following behind him as best as she could via rooftop running. The sight of these three heroes all racing off to investigate a possible crime in progress that could lead to something bigger made both Steve and George feel like they were witnessing the beginning of something great. At least, they hoped it would be, but that would all depend on what would happen when those three kids reached their destination.

* * *

The tip that Captain Stacy told them about turned out to be good, as the whole area was crawling with members of the Gob-Squad, as Peter called them. While this was the first time that Sora and Gwen were seeing the pumpkin-headed gang members in person, Spidey had honestly been hoping that he would never see them again, or at least that he would not see them wearing those stupid pumpkins again. They brought back way too many bad memories for him. He could not let that stop him from helping the others to figure out what the Goblin's old crew was doing here, and the first step to figuring that out was dealing with the pumpkin-heads guarding the boathouse they were all currently outside of.

The problem was that they could not afford to fight the Gob-Squad up close, given that they were all carrying some serious fire-power, be it in terms of regular guns or the artillery that Goblin had provided them once upon a time. Thankfully, they would not have to, as Spider-Man did actually have some experience with taking a more stealthy approach, and he was soon directing the other two on what they would need to do. Gwen was in charge of taking out the snipers, without the guys on the ground noticing, and thankfully, she found a way to do so even despite the fact she still did not have her own web-shooters. Once that was done, she was to act as a lookout for the other two boys so that no one could get the drop on them. Not that it was easy to do so in Sora's case, as he was able to use his teleportation magic to pop in, knock someone out, and pop out again before anyone noticed. Of course, he would occasionally freeze a thug where they stood, but only when he had the time to get his Keyblade to work with him on that bit of magic. Beyond that, he normally just left restraining the criminals to Spider-Man.

The rest of the problem was dealt with by the original web-slinger himself, and all of the new tricks he now had up his sleeves thanks to the new suit and upgrades that he and Stark had given him. With the HUD in his mask, he was better able to track the movements of various bad guys, even through walls, and that helped him to better plan his attacks and know when it was better to take cover and wait. Then there were the web-shooter upgrades, which he was especially proud of. One of the ones that he got a particular rush of pride from was the Trip Mine webs, which fired a small device to attach to a wall, and upon detecting a nearby enemy within the laser sight that it emitted, it would immediately fire off a web that would pull the target in to web them up completely. It could be used to tie two enemies together more quickly as well, but right now, he felt it better to use it as a special trap. The other one that he made a point to make good use of was the Impact Webs, which would tie up enemies in an instant, and often times send them flying into a nearby wall. He normally used that particular gadget against an enemy that was already close to a wall or whatever was tall enough to match the particular thug's height.

With the three working together, it was no surprise that they were able to take out all of the members of the former Goblin gang, but what was most impressive was how the last one was taken out. Somehow, Spidey had missed that last thug, and the thug had managed to sneak up behind the web-head. Right after Spider-Man had turned around, Gwen had dropped in, tackled the crook, and knocked him out with a single hit upon landing. With the last thug subdued by her own hand, Gwen could not help but turn a smirk to Peter as she asked, "What was that you were saying earlier about making sure that it was all over before relaxing?"

"…I coulda taken him," Peter insisted after a brief pause.

Sora could only roll his eyes a little in good humor, more than a little amused now by the two's banter. He would have made a comment to them had a siren not suddenly sounded, getting the attention of all three heroes. They all turned to see a squad car pulling up to where they were, and while Sora just stayed where he was, Spider-Man and Gwen both made it a point to spin out a web to hang down from and perch on a nearby wall, respectively. When the car came to a stop, the driver stepped out, and glanced around the area before she leveled her gaze on the three heroes, while the heroes made a brief study of the group. The woman in question was of Asian descent with short black hair and brown eyes, and she was decked out in a red, button up shirt, black pants and shoes, and a black leather jacket, with her police badge fastened onto her belt, and her side arm fastened to her right side.

The policewoman paused to take another once-over of the area before she finally addressed the three heroes in a serious, no-nonsense tone of voice. "You know we can't have vigilantes trespassing or doing illegal searches, Avengers or otherwise," the cop informed them.

"Yeah, we know," Spider-Man sighed, already thinking that this woman was going to be one of those by-the-book cops that did not like him, or really just any one of those other kind of cops that did not like him.

He was pleasantly surprised though when the woman produced a certain piece of paperwork for all to see and smirked, "Which is why I brought a warrant. So what do you say we all do some perfectly legal searching?"

"I like the sound of that," Spider-Man smiled from behind his mask before dropping down from his web.

"Glad to have you helping us out, Officer…" Sora added, trailing off at the end as a way of asking for an introduction.

"Detective," the policewoman corrected before accepting the handshake that the kid was offering. "Detective Yuriko Watanabe. Call me Yuri."

"Nice to meet you, Yuri. I'm Sora," the Keyblade wielder greeted.

"The Keyblade Samurai. I know," Yuri finished for him with a smile. "You've made almost as many headlines as your wall-crawling friend over here."

"Which one," Gwen jokingly questioned, making sure that Yuri could see her on the wall when she did.

Yuri just looked at the female spider-hero for a minute, honestly a little surprised before she admitted, "Okay, you are the only one here that I don't know about. Are you Spider-Man's new sidekick or something?"

"What? No, I'm not his sidekick! I'm his partner," Gwen indignantly replied.

"In-training. She's my partner-in-training," Spider-Man clarified, knowing that Gwen was now likely giving him the look for that through her mask.

"Well I hope when she's finished training she gets a better costume, because that doesn't really seem to do it for her," Yuri observed. She then asked a question that none of them were quite ready for just yet. "So what do we call you?"

"Uh…what," Gwen asked.

"You do have some kind of fancy superhero name, right," Yuri questioned.

In all honesty, Gwen had not really thought that far ahead, and neither had Peter or Sora, and they were all now feeling really stupid. How could they have not thought of a name for Gwen's new hero identity before now? That was a basic requirement for most superheroes. Even Sora had ended up getting a superhero name, despite how he had so little desire for one, so they really should have tried to think of something before now. There was no changing it now, so in the end, Gwen just went with whatever first came to her mind.

"I…I-I'm the spectacular Spider-Woman," the blonde ended up stuttering.

"Spider- _Woman_ , huh? Not the most original thing, but I guess you don't really have many other options from the look of things," Yuri observed.

"So Yuri, that warrant cover breaking down doors, because unless they made anything they were moving invisible, it looks like all of their stuff is inside the boathouse," Spider-Man stepped in, hoping to move on from the topic.

"It would, but it would require a LOT of extra paperwork," Yuri sighed.

"Somehow I don't think they left the door unlocked either," the now-officially named Spider-Woman noted.

"Guess we'll just have to find another way inside. Maybe a backdoor, an air vent…" Spider-Man began to think out loud, only to stop short when he heard Sora's Keyblade materializing once again. He and the others then watched as Sora pointed the magical weapon at the door, shot out a beam from it, and then dismissed the blade before stepping forward and simply pushing the door open. "Or you could just…do that."

"Hey, what's the point of having a friend with a magic sword that can open or close any lock if you never let him do his thing," Sora pointed out with an easy-going smile and his hands rested behind his head.

"Impressive. Remind me to call you the next time I lock myself out," Yuri joked as she made her way in with the heroes. A simple glance around showed them nothing more than the simple, rundown boathouse that it appeared to be, which made Yuri comment, "Well, nothing illegal in plain sight."

"Yeah, that's pretty anticlimactic," Gwen sighed, honestly a little disappointed by the lack of bad guy stuff.

"Only at first glance," Spider-Man corrected. "Gobby and his pals were experts at keeping things under wraps until they wanted people to know about it most of the time, so if we're going to find anything, it's going to be hidden somewhere in here."

"Right. Let's have a closer look," Yuri agreed.

"Anything in particular that we should be looking for," Sora asked.

"Just any sign of secret doors, or passages, or anything that's just out of place," Spider-Man reasoned out.

"I know of a good starting point," Yuri revealed as she made her way to a large, old container. "This yard's been here a long time. Bootleggers used to use it back in the day."

"Uh…Who," Sora asked, not having a clue as to what a bootlegger was.

"And those guys loved their secret passageways," Gwen filled in for Yuri, unintentionally ignoring Sora's question.

Yuri then moved along the wall of freight crates, tapping against them as she went, until she paused when she heard an echo coming from one in particular. "That sound suspiciously hollow to any of you," Yuri asked. She then took another look and spotted something else that was out of place. "Check this out. A hidden panel like the one I saw on the door while we were coming in. Think that magic sword could open this up too, Sora?"

"Shouldn't be too hard," Sora shrugged in reply while readying his Keyblade for action. One simple beam of light later, and the secret door was unlocked and opening up for the four.

"Well, that's a little worrying," Spider-Man could not help but quip once they saw what was inside.

There before their eyes, were several shelves of Goblin equipment. Everything from pumpkin bombs, to razor bats, and even the blasters that fired out Osborn's Gobwebs was all there before their eyes. The only thing that was not there was Goblin's glider, but somehow, Spidey just knew that there was no way that Norman only had one of those things. The only thing that was not among the shelves of Goblin supplies were vials of Globulin Green, and that was what really worried the two spiders.

"Never thought I'd ever get to see a Goblin armory in person," Yuri whispered to herself, unaware of the worries that had overcome the two spiders at first. It was not until she realized that the only answer she was going to get was silence that she finally realized that the two had frozen up. "Hey, you two okay?"

"Y-Yeah," Spider-Man stuttered. "Just…you know, memories."

Yuri had to nod in response to that. It was no secret as to how his last showdown with Green Goblin had ended after all. The battle spanned across nearly half of New York City, with Goblin having apparently weaponized the city itself to take down the web-slinger. She would have said something to the two had Sora not suddenly brought everyone's attention elsewhere. "Hey guys! Is it me, or does the floor sound a little different over here," the Keybearer called out from where he was standing, stomping down on the ground with one foot just to help his point.

The three quickly headed over to Sora's location and began to stomp on the floor as well, hearing the same echo that Sora had picked up on. "Must be an entrance to an old bootlegger's tunnel," Yuri guessed.

"Think you could open it up, Sora," Gwen asked.

"I don't know, but I can give it a try," Sora stated. "You might want to stand back," he then cautioned as he moved into position. Everyone then watched in silence after backing up as Sora pointed his Keyblade at the floor, only for nothing to happen. Nothing continued to happen for several minutes until Sora finally said, "Sorry guys, but I've got nothing."

"Maybe I do," Spider-Man reasoned, and he began scanning the area with his HUD. After another moment, everyone watched as Spidey leapt over into the upper levels of the boathouse, with Gwen following right behind him, curious as to what Peter had found.

It did not take too long for that mystery to be solved, as Spidey came to stand before an active junction box. Such a thing definitely stuck out in an abandoned boathouse, but there seemed to be quite a few of those, so Gwen had to wonder why Peter came to this one. She did not even need to ask, as Peter was already providing the answer. "I picked up on traces of electrical current running from that point on the floor Sora found to this junction box. If we can overload this, it should open that secret door in the floor right up."

"Great. You have anything that can do that, because I don't think Sora's lightning magic is the best thing to use for something so precise," Gwen pointed out.

"Not a problem. Electric Webs coming in for the win," Spider-Man announced with pride, activating the gadget in question on his one of his web-shooters. The next thing Gwen knew, she was watching as an electrically infused web-bullet shot out from Peter's web-shooter and into the junction box, shorting out the box, and cutting the electricity to the lock. "Hey, did that do anything," Peter called down to Sora.

"Nope. The thing's still closed," Sora replied.

"Damn. There must be another box," Spider-Man guessed as he started scanning again, only to pause when he spotted the box in question on the other end of the room. "There!"

"I'm on it," Gwen replied, rushing over to the box before Spider-Man could say anything. The next thing that Peter knew, she was pulling out a stun gun from one of her hoodie's pockets, and shot it right at the junction box, overloading it in seconds.

"Where did you…" Peter started to ask, only for the answer to come to his mind before he had finished the question. "Did you take that from your dad's office or something?"

"Hey, when your partner refuses to give you the really good stuff, you have to make do with whatever you can," Gwen shrugged unapologetically while returning the stun gun to her pocket. "By the way, I do actually have a license to use this, and your welcome."

Peter could not help it. He actually had to smile a bit at Gwen's ingenuity. It was definitely a sign that she could handle being a spider-hero, because he had lost count of the number of times when he had to improvise a solution with whatever was available to him at a moment's notice. He was about to give her a little praise for her cleverness when Yuri and Sora called them back over, and they both quickly returned their focus to their current job. Upon doing so, they made tracks to meet back up with Sora and Yuri, and they arrived just in time to see the two had pried open the secret door in the floor, and saw that led to a secret underground passageway. A very old underground passageway, at that.

"Well, that isn't spooky at all," Sora sarcastically shrugged.

"It's probably an old bootlegger's tunnel," Yuri reasoned.

"And it looks like no one's cleaned it since Al Capone," Gwen half-joked as she took note of the tunnel's state of disrepair and the thick dust that covered the walls and floor.

Sora looked back and forth between the two girls before leaning over to Peter and whispering, "You guys do remember that I don't get any of those references, right? You know, since I'm from…very far away?"

"I'll explain a few of them later, and probably schedule a few sessions for me, Gwen, and Miles to get you up-to-date on Earth pop culture while we're at it," Peter promised.

"This tunnel may not have been cleaned much lately, but it's definitely been used a fair bit," Yuri suddenly noted as she studied the floor. Pointing to where she was looking, Yuri explained, "These footprints are recent. Very recent. Someone's been down here, and they've been coming a lot from the look of things."

Peter knelt down to get a closer look at the footprints, and to his surprise, he actually found the pattern on the footprint familiar to him. "I've seen this before," Spider-Man muttered.

"Really? How could you recognize a shoeprint," Yuri questioned.

"Because it comes from a very expensive brand of shoes that I used to see quite a bit," Spider-Man revealed. "And so did a lot of other people in New York before he crashed his glider into a vat of his own pumpkin bombs."

"So what? Are you saying that Norman Osborn is back from the dead or something," Yuri questioned.

"Hey, my friend here works with the god of thunder, a couple that can change their size and mass at will, and a soldier who's like a hundred years old but still looks like he's barely even gotten out of his mid-twenties," Spidey pointed out as he indicated Sora to Yuri. "I don't think it would be stretch that Osborn Senior might have found a way to survive. He threw people off his scent the last time someone suspected him of being behind something illegal."

"I don't think this is Norman though, Spidey," Gwen disputed. "The size of the footprint seems a little too small to be that of an adult's."

"She's right, but that doesn't really narrow down on who else this could be by much," Yuri pointed out.

"Well, maybe there's a few more clues at the end of the tunnel," Sora suggested as he took point on leading the way. He stopped short though when the tunnel shook and caused a few rocks to come loose from the ceiling. The Keybearer likely would have been flattened if Yuri had not rushed forward and pushed him out of the way. "Thanks."

"No problem, but you probably should be a little more careful when exploring old tunnels like this one," Yuri advised with a smile.

The two spider-heroes soon joined them via wall-crawling and once they had all gathered together again, they proceeded onward into the tunnel, following it all the way to the end where they found something that was definitely not from the Al Capone era. The whole room was very new, and lined with several more shelves of Goblin tech like the ones they found earlier, only there was a lot more in here. This time, they did find one of Goblin's gliders, and in addition to that, there was also copies of the Goblin's old suit, some of which had appeared to be modified in some way that only Peter and Gwen were able to really pick up on for different reasons, but the most worrying thing that they found was a refrigerated case that had several vials of Globulin Green.

"I'd say we just found one of the Goblin's vaults of weaponry that the police missed the first time around," Sora muttered aloud as he activated his helmet, taking scans and pictures with the visor as he continued looking about.

"No, this definitely isn't one that was missed. If anything, this one's new," Yuri stated. "But who could've put all this down here?"

"I think I might know of at least one person," Gwen whispered. She then noticed another door on the opposite end of the room, and after going over to see outside, she saw it led back out to the docks that they had previously been standing on. Turning around to the group, she told Yuri, "I think we might have a few ideas on who could be behind this. Spidey, Sora, and I are going to follow-up on it."

"And how am I going to know if you find something or not," Yuri asked.

"We'll call," Gwen said as simply as possible, but Peter and Sora could definitely pick up on an edge in her tone.

"And if I find something before any of you," Yuri asked, but Gwen had already gone out the door. The detective looked to Spider-Man and said, "You've got an interesting girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend," Spider-Man corrected. "But she is definitely something else. If you find something, either call Avengers Mansion or let Captain Stacy know. He has a way of getting into contact with us."

Yuri nodded in reply as Spider-Man left the vault as well. She would have taken her leave as well had she not noticed that Sora was still next to her and smiling after the departing spiders. Seeing that, Yuri could not help but ask, "Are they really not dating?"

"They're not at the moment, but they will be soon enough," Sora promised, his knowing grin not falling at all.

Yuri could only chuckle at the apparent innocence of this kid, even as she joined him in leaving the room. "And Mom said that nothing good could really come from becoming a cop."

* * *

 _"This is a bad idea,"_ Peter's voice said through the earpiece that Gwen was currently wearing as she rode the elevator up to the Osborn family penthouse.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time," Gwen grumbled under her breath in reply while crossing her arms out of frustration.

 _"And yet, you're still going up there,"_ Peter pointed out without fail.

"You know just as well as I do that Harry's had a vendetta against you…Spider-Man, since what happened to Norman, and his change in behavior lately isn't exactly that different from when he was on the Green last time. Maybe not in the same way as before, but it's still a pretty drastic change. Besides, who else would be able to get access to all of that Goblin tech besides someone from Oscorp?"

 _"You mean aside from anyone who's ever stolen from Oscorp?"_

"As I recall, most of the time that someone stole from Oscorp, it was Green Goblin stealing from them as a way of covering his own tracks. The only time that wasn't the case was when Mysterio first showed up."

 _"Still, are you sure you want to confront Harry about something like this? If he's really gotten as bad as you've said he has…"_

"I can handle myself. Besides, I'm not confronting Harry directly. I'm just going to be looking around his penthouse for any signs of anything that could tie him to this. I have been here a lot more often and more recently than you have after all, and considering his recent attitude towards you whenever your brought up, even in passing, I think you can see why it would be a bad idea for you Peter Parker or Spider-Man to be snooping around here, especially if you get caught."

 _"Right. Because it would be so much better if you get caught."_

"That's why you're here, remember? To watch my back and come swinging in to save the day in case something does happen."

 _"Uh Gwen, Peter? You do remember that I'm here too, right? Or that Peter isn't the only one watching your back, Gwen,"_ Sora interrupted, surprising the blonde a little at the sudden intrusion of the Keybearer's voice.

"Wait, Sora, how much of that did you just hear," Gwen asked.

 _"Try all of it. You do remember that the comm. frequency in Peter's mask that we're using right now is the same as the one in my helmet, and the one that the rest of the Avengers use, right,"_ Sora reminded them.

Gwen would have let out a small, quiet laugh in response, since she had forgotten that, but she had to stifle it as the elevator had just reached its destination. The minute the doors opened, Gwen was welcomed to the massive expanse of the Osborn family's main living room, and from what she could tell, it did not seem like anyone was home. Quietly proceeding inwards, Gwen kept her eyes and ears peeled for any signs of the Osborns actually being home, because if they were, that would probably make her search a little harder. The idea was simple; all she had to do was take a look around and see if she could find any kind of proof that Harry had been following in his father's green-clad footsteps. The footprint that they had found in the tunnel was a sure match for one of Harry's shoes, and after the way Harry had been acting lately, along with what he had said at the cemetery after his father's funeral, Gwen was starting to think that maybe he had decided to become the next Green Goblin. If not that, then there was definitely a chance that Harry had fallen back into his old addiction to the Globulin Green, and after seeing the vials of the performance enhancer in that vault, Gwen's suspicions only grew.

She did not want to believe that Harry had backslid into his addiction, especially after he had told her that she was the only thing keeping him from doing so, but with the way Harry had been lately, and what they had seen last night, she could not help but think the worst. That was why she was now sneaking around her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend's penthouse in an attempt to find anything that would either prove he was guilty of the whole thing, or that he was innocent and someone was trying to set him up. She just had to hope that Harry was not home, and that he, his mother, or his butler caught her doing this, otherwise she would have to test just how valid her excuse of hoping to see Harry really was.

Thankfully, it seemed that no one was home, as far as Gwen could tell, even as she continued to snoop around and look over anything that she could with an extra critical eye. You could not blame her for taking a second look at everything, especially after she found out from Peter how the knight's armor was actually the entrance to the Osborns' wine cellar. You would think Harry would have mentioned that to her and Peter at some point over the course of all the years that they had been coming to this place. In the end, Gwen did not seem to have too much luck in finding anything, and could not help but let out a long, tired sigh as she leaned against the wall near one of the few family portraits that were in the entire penthouse. The moment she did, a soft click went off, and Gwen jumped back just in time to see a panel in the wall open up to reveal a keypad underneath.

"Okay, didn't expect that, but I'll take it," Gwen whispered to herself, only to pause a moment later when she realized she had no clue as to what the passcode for this keypad could be. That was not going to stop her from trying though, and she was about to make an attempt at guessing the code at random, until she stopped short. "Maybe if I can uncover the fingerprints on here, I can get the code from that."

Taking out her make-up kit from her purse, Gwen quickly set to work applying whatever she could to make the prints on the keys a little more noticeable, and upon seeing which numbers had been pressed the most, it was easy enough for her to figure out what the code could have been. "Harry's birthday? A little obvious, don't you think, Har," Gwen muttered to herself as she typed in the digits necessary. She then watched as the wall opened up to reveal a secret lab that was definitely geared towards anything and everything Goblin-related, and among all of the tech were several pages of notes littered amongst the lab tables. Those notes all had one thing in common that made Gwen's heart sink a little: they were all written in Harry's handwriting. Looking around, Gwen also spotted a map that pinpointed where the most Spider-Man sightings had been, and alongside every Spider-Man photo were sticky notes that said things like fraud, liar, and killer. There were a few Daily Bugle articles as well, most of them being the more scathing articles against Spidey, but they were small potatoes in comparison to what all the rest of this really meant. "Oh Harry," Gwen whispered. "How could you?"

"About as easily as you did all of this, Gwen," Harry's voice replied from behind her, and Gwen instantly spun around to see her current boyfriend glaring at her from the lab's entrance. "You know, I was hoping to tell you about this when the time was right, but you just had to go and ruin the surprise, didn't you?"

"What? That you're taking Globulin Green again? That your making more of your dad's old Goblin weapons and tech? That you've restarted his gang? Just how exactly were you planning to justify any of this," Gwen demanded, a little more bravely than even she expected.

"Because I would be getting justice for my father," Harry easily replied as he stepped in, not seeming the least bit worried about anything. "I'd have exposed Spider-Man as the criminal he really is, and then made him pay for what he did to my father. I mean, if he really is a hero, then he should've tried to save Dad, right? My dad was obviously sick and needed help like I did when I was first on the Green, but Spidey didn't try to help him. He just let my dad get blown up and killed."

"That's not what happened, Harry," Gwen tried to argue, but her words fell on deaf ears. Then again, it could've been more accurate to say that the person she was directing them to just did not want to listen to them.

"You weren't there that night! You can't prove any of that," Harry practically shouted. "Spider-Man killed my father, and he needs to pay for it! I mean, I know you're not okay with that, but does anyone else cry when bad guys die? I mean, sure, my father wasn't a saint, but he was still my dad."

"Who framed you for his crimes, and hurt you to do it," Gwen continued trying to point out.

"Like I said, he was sick," Harry excused. His anger then faded away for a grin that was much more sinister and frightening than Gwen would have liked to see on any of her friends. "But you don't really care about that, do you? You think that Spider-Man was justified in what he did. After all, it wasn't that long ago that you felt like it was okay for you to stab me in the back, right?"

"What're you talking about," Gwen asked, now a little confused as to what Harry was getting at. She was still backing away from him as he started to loom a little closer to her.

"Don't play stupid, I know all about you two. You and Peter," Harry snarled, making Gwen freeze a little when he mentioned those names. "Yeah, I thought so. I heard you two that night when I told you about my history with the Green and Goblin. You guys were going to stab me in the back all because you wanted to be together. I mean, I always knew that you had a thing for Peter, but I thought that since he was with Liz, that meant you would be able to move on and actually feel something real for me. Then here comes old Pete, spouting off all this nonsense about wanting to be with you, and you fall into his arms like it was no big deal, while thinking up ways to end things between us just so you can be with him."

Gwen was shocked of course. She had never thought that Harry might have heard the conversation she had with Peter that night after he left, and she knew that it must have hurt for him to find out about things that way. Still, after hearing all of this, something else clicked in her mind, and her sympathy was quickly beginning to turn more towards anger. "You knew…And that's why…That's why you said I was the only thing keeping you from backsliding," Gwen realized, her voice already showing just how upset the whole thing was making her. "You lied to me because you were jealous of Peter, and made all of that up so that I would stay with you."

"It wasn't all a lie, but I wasn't about to lose to Peter again," Harry admitted. "Despite what he thinks, he's the one between the two of us who's always had it best. The loving and supportive family, the great friends, being the smartest guy in the room; it's always been the great Peter Parker who was on top. Hell, he probably would've made the football team too, if he had actually tried on the last day of try-outs last year, but he threw it because of one conversation he and I had. I guess I can at least thank him for that, but you know what really hurts? That he even had my father's approval, and that he had your love! I had already figured out that I was always going to be second to Peter in my dad's eyes, but I had at least hoped that wouldn't be true in your case! Too bad it was already too late, or at least it would've been if I hadn't said what I did that day."

Gwen could not believe what she was hearing. Sure, she knew that Harry had been a little jealous of Peter in one or two areas, but she always believed that he did not mind it too much, given how close they were. After all, Peter and Harry had been best friends for years, almost as long as she had known both of them, so she could not truly believe that Harry really hated Peter that much. "Harry, you don't mean that. This has to be the Green talking," Gwen pleaded, hoping against hope that she was right in that regard.

"Yeah, you'd like it if that was the case, because then you could just talk down Harry Wussy Osborn, but newsflash: this isn't the Green; it's all me," Harry confessed.

"And you really want to talk like that, or even consider hurting people who've been your best friends for years," Gwen questioned, doing her best to not give him the look. Considering that this whole conversation had been relayed to Sora and Peter through her earpiece, she had a feeling that the two boys were already on their way, so she had to buy them some time until they got here, assuming they were coming at all.

"Oh, my best friends, huh," Harry asked in total sarcasm. "Funny how those so-called 'friends' are so eager to betray me, and how one of them never once thought to come near me after his web-swinging buddy killed my dad, but I guess that since Spider-Man's his big money maker, it'd make sense that Peter would want that menace to stick around."

"Harry," Gwen gasped, astonished that he would actually say something like that about Peter.

"No! If Pete really was my friend, then why wouldn't he do something to help me a little more, like by helping me to find Spider-Man so I can finally get even," Harry insisted. His grin was back again after that remark, and he raised one of his hands up towards Gwen. She was sure that Harry was about to try and attack her, but what really came as a surprise was when a dark orange and black glove suddenly materialized around Harry's hand and then began to spark with electricity as he spoke. "Maybe he just needs the right motivation, like knowing that his precious little Gweny won't be around for much longer if he refuses."

Now Gwen was horrified. Harry may have been bad in some of their fights, but he had never threatened her before, especially not like this. The only thing more worrying was the strange gauntlet that had appeared over his hand out of nowhere like that, and she had a feeling that it was just one of the improvements that he had made to his father's old Goblin tech. None of that mattered right now, because in that moment, seeing Harry approach with full intention on attacking her, Gwen had to stop herself from lashing out and fighting back with her new spider-strength, knowing that it would blow her secret identity, as new as it was, clear out of the water. That did not mean that she was out of options, and she did not hesitate to go for the one that was easiest to reach. "SORA," Gwen shouted.

Harry was not sure what had happened. One minute he was about to fire a blast from the fingertips of his gloved hand, and then the next minute, there was a flash of light, and his blast was being deflected. Looking to the responsible party, he was surprised to find himself staring down a fully armed and very angry Keyblade Samurai. "Really? First Peter, and now the little brat of the Avengers," Harry snarled at Gwen. "Just how much of a slut are you?"

"Now that's enough! If you really are her friend, then you wouldn't need anyone to tell you that Gwen's not like that," Sora snapped, clearly still upset with what had just happened and with all the horrible things that he heard Harry say through Gwen's comm. device. "I get that you're jealous of your friend, but that's no excuse for doing what you've done. To Gwen or anyone else."

"You know, you should just stay out of this, kid. It doesn't concern you," Harry waved off Sora, almost like he believed Sora to be an annoying little bug.

"If you mess with any of my friends in any way, then it definitely concerns me," Sora retorted, waving for Gwen to get out while he had Harry's attention.

Gwen did not have any problem with making tracks out of the secret lab, but if Harry noticed her leaving, he obviously did not care too much. He was already moving on to something else. "Fine, if you want to play the hero, then by all means, but you'll find that us Osborns are not to be messed with," Harry growled, darkly. The next thing Sora knew, more of the strange, black and dark orange glove from before began expanding around Harry's body, until he was completely decked out in a full suit that was made up of dark orange armor over a dark blue suit, with black gloves, a dark orange hood with silver antenna stuck out from the sides like pointed ears, and a silver mask with glowing red eyes that hid all of Harry's face. "What? Did you really think I was going to try and use all of my dad's old crap to take down Spider-Man when it obviously couldn't get the job done," Harry asked once the suit had fully formed. "I've been working for months on improving all of his old stuff, building up a new Goblin suit using nanotech and some of my own inventions. Despite what everyone else thinks, I do actually have some smarts when it comes to science, even without the Green. Now, there's a new goblin in town, and he's going to be the one that finishes what the old goblin started." He then reached into his belt and drew out a black handle that ignited what looked to be a sword made of fire as he finished, "This is now the age of the Hobgoblin!"

Sora could hardly believe that Peter and Gwen's friend had really fallen this far, but right now, he had to focus on the fight at hand, and if Harry really wanted to try and best him in a sword fight, Sora was more than happy to show the rich brat how hard that was going to be. A minute later, magically-infused steel clashed with burning flame, as the two swords clashed with each other, and after holding their lock for a minute, Sora managed to push Harry off and begin overpowering the Hobgoblin with fast, powerful swings. That did not slow Hobgoblin down for long, as he eventually managed to find a break in Sora's attacks for him to actually leap over Sora, and then land on his own Goblin Glider, which he had called out to earlier as he was activating his suit. Charging forward on the glider, Harry forced Sora to dodge to the side in an effort to stay ahead of Harry, but between dodging his glider and avoid the swings of his fire sword, Sora was barely able to get much time to actually counterattack.

Now, Sora knew that he could just blast Harry off the glider with a bit of magic, but there were several reasons why he was avoiding that. The first and most obvious was that there was no way to know for sure if the spell he called out would work, and in a fight like this, Sora did not want to risk getting a fire spell when he was trying for an ice spell. More importantly, he was worried that any magic he tried, save for time magic would really hurt Harry, even if he was wearing armor. Granted, he did not really care if he roughed up the young Osborn, but the guy was still Peter and Gwen's friend, and they seemed to think he was better than this, so Sora somehow managed to hold himself back. It was a struggle to be sure, given all that he had recently heard and now seen about Harry, but Sora was not one to let his friends down like that. Of course, with the way that Harry was going though, Sora was not sure how long his patience could hold out.

Unfortunately, Sora's hesitance ended up costing him some ground in the fight, and he did not even realize that until they were already out of the secret lab, through the Osborns' living room, and standing on the balcony overlooking the city outside. The only reason Sora did realize this was because Harry had backed him right into the railing that went around the balcony to keep anyone from falling off, and now, he was pressed against that railing as he used Kingdom Key to keep Harry from either burning him alive or slicing him in half with his fire sword. "What's the matter, kid? Too afraid to really fight back," Hobgoblin mocked as he continued pressing down on Sora's Keyblade with his weapon. "I thought you were supposed to be one of the tougher members on your team, given how you're always seen shooting fire and ice on the news."

"I'm trying not to do that right now," Sora admitted with a growl. "I may not have a high opinion of you at the moment, Osborn, but Gwen and Peter still think of you as their best friend. I'm not about to hurt someone that my friends care about."

"Don't talk to me about who my friends are or aren't! Especially when it comes to those traitors," Harry shouted in Sora's face, adding more strength to his push as he did.

Sora's guard almost faltered under the sudden increase of pressure on him, proving that the Goblin strength was all that Spider-Man claimed it to be, and he probably would have caved completely had something not suddenly pulled Hobgoblin off of him and thrown the son of the original Goblin clear across the patio. "I'd say that even the original Goblin had stooped so low as to pick on kids, but you and I both know that isn't true, Harry," Sora's rescuer quipped as he dropped down from above, revealing the target of the young Osborn's vengeance to all.

"Spider-Man," Hobgoblin snarled. "If I'd know that you would come running the minute something like this started, I wouldn't have wasted my time trying to find you the old fashioned way. Granted, it might make me seem like more of a villain at first, but I'm sure once I've exposed you as the fraud you are, no one will care."

"Harry, listen to me. I didn't kill your father, and I never wanted to kill him either," Spider-Man tried to reason. His attempts were less successful than Gwen's, because before he could further than that, Harry had fired out a blast of electricity that made Peter feel like everything was being flash-fried.

"I don't want to hear your lies or excuses! You're going to pay for what you did, and nothing's going to stop me," Harry roared as he continued to fire off the electric blast from his gauntlet.

Sora was about to move in and help Spider-Man, but he was soon forced to dodge to one side when Harry fired another blast from his other gauntlet. Hobgoblin kept his blast on Spider-Man going for a little while longer, slowly approaching the web-head as he did, until he was finally close enough to slug Spidey across the face. Since Spider-Man was getting blasted with such a constant stream of electric energy beforehand, he was not able to block or dodge Harry's punch before it could connect, and as a result, he ended up plummeting over the edge of the balcony to the city below.

Normally, Peter would have shot out a web to save himself, but he was still really dazed from Harry's attacks to focus well-enough. This looked like the end of Spider-Man, until suddenly, someone caught him before he could fall any further. Looking to his rescuer, Peter was surprised to see Gwen holding him up while perched on the side of the building, and fully decked out in her temporary costume. "Sorry I took so long. It took me forever to find a good place to change and hide my clothes," Gwen quipped out like a pro. "You would think that there would be a few more places for a girl to change into her superhero alter ego without the risk of anyone seeing her half-naked or something."

Peter could only smile in response to Gwen's jovial words, even as he moved to reorient himself and perch alongside her on the wall. Once he had gotten there though, he finally replied, "Gwen, I could tell you so many stories. I mean, I don't _want_ to, but I could." He then fired a pair of web-lines straight up, and handed one to Gwen as he said. "Follow my lead, and when I give the signal, stop sticking."

Gwen nodded in response, and was soon matching Peter's movements as he backed up, making their respective web-lines stretch more and more as they did. When they had finally reached just the right point, Peter gave his signal, and the two spider-powered teens went flying upwards, right back to the balcony, just in time to see Harry exchanging sword strikes with Sora once more. Sora had actually just rolled away from another one of Harry's swings when the two decided to step in and lend a hand, or in this case, a web.

"You know, I thought you'd have learned the rules after watching your dad lose this game, Harry," Spider-Man quipped as he yanked away Hobgoblin's fire sword with a web. "Rule one might say that Spidey must splat…"

"But Rule two clear states to ignore Rule One," Gwen finished as she jumped in and kicked Harry away.

Normally, Harry would have retorted, but right now, he was a little more curious about the newcomer to this fight, and why they were wearing a copy of Spider-Man's mask. "And just who the hell are you supposed to be," Hobgoblin demanded.

"No one special," Gwen shrugged. "Just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Woman."

"Spider- _Woman_ ," Harry gasped in disbelief. He then looked to the original web-slinger and asked, "What is she, your wife or something?"

"WHAT?! No! Where did you get that idea from," Spider-Man demanded. That was a much bigger leap of logic than Yuri had made earlier that day.

"He's right. If anything, they're on the verge of starting to date," Sora revealed.

"Sora!" Gwen hissed, even as she turned her head away in an attempt to hide a blush out of reflex.

"That makes this a lot easier for me either way," Hobgoblin snarled, grinning behind his mask in a way that would have doubtlessly made the three heroes worried. "Why just settle for killing for Spider-Man, when I can just make him suffer like I have."

Before anyone realized what was happening, Harry was rushing towards Gwen with the intent to grab her, but just as he was within arm's reach, Gwen managed to jump clear and vault over him with another show of grace like the one she had given that morning. "Sorry, but I'm not really into guys who are so grabby," Gwen quipped, more out of a need to hide how freaked out she was that Harry had just done that than anything else.

"And I'm afraid that I'm something of the jealous type myself, something I'm sure you would know all about after everything we just overheard, Harry," Spider-Man added as he shot out an Electric Web to stun Harry. Since Harry was wearing armor, Peter was sure that it would not hurt too much, so he had no problem using one of his more offensive new gadgets.

That electrified webbing did seem to hurt Harry at least a little bit, but he did not seem to pay it too much mind for long, as he ripped the web bullet off of his chest even as he wobbled back from the three. He probably should have paid more attention to his surroundings though, as he ended up stumbling right into the railing of his own balcony and falling over it like Spidey had just recently. Spider-Man would have jumped after Harry in an attempt to catch him, had his glider not suddenly come flying out to rescue its rider first. The only downside was that Peter's head had ended up being in the path of one of the glider's wings, and he ended up getting hit pretty hard when it came, sending him falling as well to the ground several stories down as well.

Gwen and Sora reacted in an instant, jumping over the rail to try and catch one of the two. When they saw Harry land on his glider and prepare to attack the falling Spider-Man again, Sora finally decided to stop holding back and tried for an ice spell in an attempt to force Harry away from his friend. He ended up getting a fire spell, but the result he was going for was still the same, and it allowed Gwen to catch Peter just in time. Unfortunately, it looked like Peter was either dazed or unconscious, so Gwen quickly aimed his web-shooter up towards a nearby building and fired it herself. The web did land on a target, but not quite the one she was going for. Instead, the web was intercepted by a train that had been passing by at the time, and as a result, she and Peter were both suddenly pulled along for the ride when the web connected.

"WHOA," Gwen cried out as she and Peter were dragged along for the unexpected ride. "HEY! SOMEBODY STOP THAT TRAIN!"

"Oh boy," Sora sighed as he transformed Kingdom Key into its glider form, and he was soon racing after the run-away Spider-Heroes and the train that they were latched onto, with Hobgoblin hot on both of their trails, and firing more electric blasts along the way.

When Harry started adding some pumpkin bombs into the mix of his attacks, Gwen started working double time on her efforts to wake Peter up, and ended up having to slap him a couple times before he did. The only downside was that when Peter did awaken, it was just in time to face-plant into a sign before their train ride continued. "OW! That still hurts," Peter grumbled after the fact.

"Sorry," Gwen apologized, feeling a little responsible for the event.

Peter waved it off though, and upon noticing Sora getting peppered by Hobgoblin's attacks, he released his web-line and dropped down onto the back of Sora's Keyblade Glider. He then did his best to aim behind them so that he could fire some web-bullets at Harry, if for no other reason than to discourage him from attacking anymore. The only downside was that Harry's attacks started to go a little wide as a result, and several nearby structures were struck instead, forcing people to scream, panic, and run for safety.

"We've got to stop this before anyone gets hurt," Gwen said to the boys.

"And while we're at it, we should probably look into getting a more comfortable ride," Peter quipped as he squirmed to find a better seat on the flying motorbike.

"Hey, don't look at me. My Keyblade Glider isn't really made for carrying a lot of passengers, if any," Sora informed the two. He then made a hard swerve to the right to avoid another electric blast from Hobgoblin, and asked, "Any ideas on how we're going to stop him now?"

"We've gotta at least try and talk him down," Peter insisted. "I know we can get him to listen to reason if we just…"

"I'm not so sure," Gwen interrupted. "Harry might be too far gone for us to do anything. I couldn't get him to listen to me, so I don't think you can either, Pete."

That made Spider-Man go quiet, and Sora was worried that it meant he was ready to give up and treat Harry like any other criminal that he had put away, until the web-slinger perked up again. "You might be right. Maybe Spider-Man won't be able to reach him, but I think I know someone who can," Peter figured aloud. He then quickly reloaded his web-shooters with fresh cartridges, looked to the other two, and instructed, "You guys do what you can to either help civilians or find someplace isolated from any and all prying eyes. I'll keep him busy."

"Wait," Gwen asked, grabbing his arm before he could jump off. "What're you going to do?"

"Just trust me," Spider-Man insisted before he pulled himself free from Gwen's hold and jumped off, firing a series of web-bullets from one his shooters so that he could ensure that Harry's attention was on him. "Alright, Hobgoblin, you want me? Come and get me! Assuming you think your Goblin enough to keep up!"

"Oh, I'll show you who's Goblin enough," Harry promised as he gave chase to the fleeing Spider-Man.

From that point on, Spider-Man and Hobgoblin could be seen battling it out, but it was clear that while Hobgoblin was throwing everything in his arsenal to try and end the wall-crawler, Spider-Man merely kept his distance as best he could while firing off webs to prevent his attacks from causing any more collateral damage to the surrounding area. Or at least, he was doing that as much as he could, because when he was not doing that, Spidey was firing off webs to make sure that Harry continued to pursue him and not either of his friends, leading Harry in an uneven circle until he got word from the other two about a place that they could lead the new Goblin towards. If his plan was going to work, then Peter needed to make absolutely sure that there were no witnesses around to see what he was going to do.

Things seemed to be going well from Peter could see, given that Sora was using the struts of his Keyblade Glider to prevent any falling debris from hurting the civilians below, and Gwen seemed to be doing well in keeping people safe as well, given how many times he saw her pulling people to safety, but he soon discovered that his job was going to be a bit harder than he realized when he went to fire off a web-line from his left web-shooter. When the web never came, he first thought that it was because the shooter was damaged, but when he looked to the arm it was supposed to be on, he found that it was not there! "What the," Spider-Man gasped. "What happened to my other web-shooter?!"

* * *

Peter's answer was actually not that hard to figure out, because before Peter had taken off to engage Harry again, Gwen had made it a point to slip his second web-shooter off of his arm. Strapping it onto her right wrist, Gwen quickly started making some adjustments so that it would work better for her, not realizing she was muttering about those adjustments out loud until it was too late. "Hooke's law; elastic force is linear with distance, given all factors are equal, but since Peter and I aren't equal…a little adjustment here at the nozzle, and…good to go."

"What are you," Sora started to ask as he glanced back, only to stop short when he saw what Gwen was doing. "Did you just steal one of Spidey's web-shooters?!"

"Now Sora, 'steal' is such a harsh word. I'm…borrowing it…without him knowing," Gwen weakly corrected. Knowing that her defense was probably weak, Gwen quickly tried to change the subject. "You know, do you think we should get a different nickname for either Spider-Man or me, because if I'm going to be called Spider-Woman, that would mean that there would be two people that everyone would refer to as Spidey, right?"

"Gwen," Sora snapped, not willing to let go of the previous topic just yet.

"Hey, shush! Secret identity, remember," Gwen scolded.

"We're a few feet up in the air, and flying really fast. I don't think anyone's going to be able to hear me that well," Sora reasoned. "More importantly…"

"Look, I know Pete said that I'm not ready yet, but in this situation, I've got to at least try and use one of these things. I'll be of more help with them than without," Gwen interrupted.

"Are you sure about this," Sora could not help but ask, still worried about Gwen. "How do you even know you can handle it?"

"I don't," Gwen replied with a smile. "Like Cap said, it's all just a leap of faith." That made Sora go quiet, and Gwen then turned her attention towards the city below them, took a deep breath, and prepared to jump, all the while quietly muttering, "Come on Spider-Sense."

Her self-preparations done, Gwen made a powerful leap off of Sora's Keyblade Glider, catapulting herself high into the air when she did. She would have fired the web-shooter right after that, but she immediately stopped herself when she felt like there was a very subtle nudge telling her to wait for a moment. So instead, Gwen spun herself around so that she was free falling through the air, waiting for just the right time, and once she got to just the right position, she reacted on instinct, spun around, and fired the web-shooter. The result was so beautiful you could consider it pure poetry or a work of art, as Gwen easily hit her target, and swung through the air with incredible ease. When she released her hold on the current line, she turned to aim at another, unseen structure, and fired again, hitting her target and using it to swing forwards so that she could pull a couple out of the way of one of Hobgoblin's stray blasts. Another web-line fired, and she was zipping through the air towards a lamppost that she easily vaulted over to reach a car that had been crushed under some rubble. Using only her bare hands, Gwen pulled the door off its hinges, and quickly pulled the driver and his passengers out of the car before anything else could fall and crush them all.

Sora could only watch in awe for a few minutes as Gwen showed off just how much Peter's training was really pulling off, and even executed several web-slinging maneuvers like she had been doing so for years now. Sure, there were one or two moments when Gwen missed a target, but she was able to adapt quickly and improvise on whatever the situation had given her in that moment. Sora was not sure if Peter was seeing any of this from where he was, but something told him that if he was, then Spider-Man was definitely feeling really proud of her right now, assuming he was able to get over the fact that Gwen had swiped his web-shooter off of his arm quickly enough.

Sora had to shake off his amazement though, because there was still a situation to deal with, but thankfully, he had an extra edge in finding nearby, isolated areas while keeping people out of trouble. He had been scanning for such locations with his helmet ever since Peter had told them to find a place like that, so by the time Sora had pulled another group to safety, he had located an area that he was sure that might be what Peter was aiming for. "Spider-Man, warehouse at two-o'-clock! No one's used it in years," Sora reported.

He saw Spider-Man glance in the direction he had indicated, and then heard Peter's voice call in over his helmet's built-in radio, _"Nice work, Sora. I'll lead Harry over there, but once we're inside, I'll need you and Gwen to stay back. Partly because I'm going to need a lookout for anyone passing by that might try to sneak in for any reason."_

"Why? What're you gonna do," Sora asked.

 _"You'll see,"_ was all the reply that Peter gave, and Sora ended up unable to do anything more than watch as Spider-Man swung away to what he could only assume was going to be the final battleground in the fight against Hobgoblin. Then again, Sora had an odd feeling that whatever Peter was planning may be something that came with way more risks than any of them would like.

* * *

The minute that he had lured Harry into the warehouse, Spider-Man made it a point to seal off all entry and exit points, save for one. That one would be the point where Gwen and Sora could stand watch for any moment that they would need to step in. Not that Sora really needed an opening, given that he could teleport, but Peter was not really all too focused on that right now. He just needed to keep his attention on his best friend. "Harry, please. Just listen to me for a few minutes," Spider-Man pleaded.

"I'm so far beyond done listening to you," Hobgoblin shouted as he reached for another pumpkin bomb. He paused a second later though, and was soon searching his belt and glider for more of the most well-known projectile weapon of the Goblin arsenal.

"Yeah, don't you just hate it when you run out of ammo at a critical moment," Spidey asked, knowing that his friend had likely run out of bombs while he was chasing after them. He just hoped that Harry did not have any razor bats on him as well, because he really hated those things. Shaking the thought off but still keeping his attention tuned in on his Spider-Sense, Peter attempted to reason once again. "Harry, I didn't kill your father, and I never even wanted to kill him. Yes, I was mad when I found out what he did, but not to that point. I was basically running on adrenaline when the fight reached that moment, and by the time that I was able to try and shoot a web in an attempt to save him, it was already too late."

"STOP LYING," Harry shouted as he drew his fire sword again and charged. Without a second though, Spider-Man fired off a few Trip Wire webs, and Harry's glider was soon webbed down to the floor, sending its rider flying towards the superhero. Harry did not let that stop him though, as he merely tucked and rolled across the ground before slashing away at Spider-Man. Eventually, Spidey caught Harry's arms on their next downward swing, only to grunt under the intense pressure of finally realizing just how strong Globulin Green really made his friend. "Nothing you say will ever make me believe you wanted to save him! It's all just lies! Everything about you and your so-called heroics are lies!"

Normally, Spidey would have made a quip about listening to J. Jonah Jameson's rants in response, but this situation was not the time for that. If anything, it was a time when he had to play his ultimate trump card. "Well if you won't believe Spider-Man," the wall-crawler began, reaching up and pulling his mask off as he spoke. "Then how about your best friend?"

"What," Harry gasped, his arms finally going slack and dropping to his sides once Peter released him. He then retracted his mask so that the world could see his shocked face as he continued to stare in disbelief at the true face behind Spider-Man's mask. "Peter? You're…But how…It can't be…"

"It is, Harry," Peter insisted. "And you know that I would never want anyone to suffer through the same thing I did when I lost my parents and Uncle Ben. I've never wanted to hurt you, Harry, and neither did Gwen, and despite everything that's happened, I still consider you my best friend, just like how I still consider Eddie my bro, even after all the things that's happened between me and him. Harry, you need help, and I should've been there for you a lot sooner, and I'm sorry that I wasn't. I just wasn't sure how to really be around you or anyone else after everything that happened that night, but now…I want to do whatever I can to help my best friend."

Harry just continued to stare at his friend, processing what he was hearing, until he finally lowered his head and started shaking. At first, Peter thought that he was crying and reached out to place a hand on Harry's shoulder, but he was proven wrong when Harry grabbed his arm as tightly as he could and began laughing madly. "It all makes sense now," Harry whispered between cackles.

"Harry," Peter questioned, worried about what this meant his friend was going to do. He was right to be concerned, because a minute later, he was thrown across the room, until he collided with a metal support beam, hard.

"It all makes so much sense," Harry declared madly with an equally mad grin now on his face. "You've been jealous of me for years, Peter, so what better way to make things better for you while destroying my life, than to become Spider-Man? A few simple charity acts here and there, like when you saved Dad from Vulture, or when you backed out at the Football tryouts last year, and no one would think twice about questioning your 'heroics' when you finally make a move to destroy my life!"

"Harry…" Peter pleaded, but he was quickly interrupted by a flash of light and a voice he had only heard speak in an angry tone like that one time before now.

"Are you even listening to yourself?! That's your best friend your talking like that about," Sora shouted, making both boys spin and face the ticked off Keyblade Samurai when they heard him. Sora then retracted his helmet so that he could better look Harry in the eye, and his voice did lower in volume, his words were still just as heated. "I told you already that the only reason I wasn't going all out and treating like any other villain was because Peter and Gwen still think there's some good in you, despite all evidence to the contrary, and even now, Peter's risking everything to get you to see sense. If Peter really was that jealous of you, don't you think you would've realized it a lot sooner? He and Gwen have both done so much for you, and they both care about you to the point where I'm sure that you're like family to them."

"Like…like family," Harry stuttered, almost as if the concept was completely foreign to him now.

"Yeah, you heard me. With his powers, Peter could've easily become just another jock and left you high and dry, but he didn't because he would rather stick with you and the rest of his real friends," Sora pressed on. "And after what happened to your dad, Gwen was willing to stay with you so that you could heal, even though her feelings for you weren't the same as yours were for her. Not only that, but after that night, Peter thought that the only way he could keep others safe was by keeping them at a distance, and he did that for months. You really think someone would do that for selfish reasons? If anything, I'd say that Peter and Gwen are more like your family than your dad ever was. Do you really want to throw that away and be like the man Norman Osborn was? A man who would frame his own kid for crimes he committed, and even made sure to hurt said kid to make it all the more convincing?"

"Harry, don't forget that one of the big reasons why you first started taking the Green was so you could make your dad proud of you, and even then, it wasn't ever really enough," Peter added, seeing what Sora was getting at. "But you never needed to be something you're not with me and Gwen. We've both always preferred the real you over some stupid image that you thought you had to live up to with your dad. Please…just stop this before you succumb to the ugly, monstrous being inside of you like your father did." He then reached for his remaining web-shooter, removed the device, and tossed it aside before holding his arms out wide. "If there really isn't any of the Harry Osborn I know in there, then here's your chance to prove it."

Harry was panting heavily now, almost looking like he was hyperventilating to some as he rapidly looked about the room like there was some random object in it that could give him all the answers if he could just find it. The two things he looked between the most though were Peter, standing perfectly still with his arms out and completely vulnerable to any attack, and his fire sword that was still activated in his hand that currently hung at his side. For months now, he had wanted to make Spider-Man pay for what happened to his father, but now, after learning the man behind the mask was his best friend, and hearing all that Sora and Peter had said, Harry was suddenly unsure of what to do. All of his planning, all of his preparations, they all seemed like something he could not help but question the worth of if it meant that he would lose so much. Looking back to Peter once more, Harry saw that Peter had not moved, but was still looking at him, his gaze unwavering, clearly hopeful, but most importantly to Harry, not judging at all. There was not even a single ounce of that in Peter's eyes, unlike his father's, which were always calculating and making him feel like his worth was always being measured. Peter's eyes, like always, were just looking at him in the same way they always had.

When a few more moments passed with nothing but silence and inaction on Harry's part, Sora could not help but grow more nervous, and from where she was outside on the roof, Gwen was just as worried. She still held her position, sure that Peter knew what he was doing, while keeping her Spider-Sense tuned into what was happening inside for any sign of something bad happening to either of the two boys. Eventually, Harry finally raised his weapon, and rushed at Peter with a roar of anguish that made Sora and Gwen feel like they needed to move in right away, but they both froze when they saw that Peter was still holding his ground and not moving at all. Just when Sora had shaken off his shocked reaction, Harry's weapon came down, and struck nothing but air and the ground near Peter's feet, while the man who called himself Hobgoblin just dropped the weapon, letting it deactivate after it hit the floor, and fell into Peter's arms, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Pete…I'm…I'm so sorry," Harry softly cried as he felt his friend's arms wrap around him in a hug while lowering him down to the floor before his legs gave out. "I just…I can't…"

"I know, Harry. Trust me, I know," Peter reassured him. "It's going to be okay now. I promise, everything's going to be okay."

"Will it," Harry asked. "He's still here. Everywhere I look now, I see him judging me, telling me what I should be doing, and even now, I can see him glaring down at me like he always did when he was alive. I don't want to keep living with that."

"Don't worry, pal. We can get you help, and once you're better, Gwen and I will be here for you like we always have been. After all, can't let our best friend go through tough times alone," Peter reassured him.

"Thanks Pete," Harry finally smiled in response, before he started crying again, knowing that this was going to be last time that he saw his friend for a while. Before that though, he had to let Peter know something else. "I'm sorry for what I did to you and Gwen. You know…she really does love you. Don't ever let her think you don't care about her, or be like…"

"Trust me, you don't have to worry about that," Peter said, looking up to where Gwen was watching with tears forming in her eyes that she could not wipe away because of her mask. "I already know just how spectacular she is, and I don't plan on letting her think I don't believe that any time soon."

* * *

A few hours after the scene in the warehouse, Gwen and Sora were happy to help Peter get all of the Hobgoblin tech off of Harry and hidden away where no one else could use it, save for Harry himself, assuming he ever felt like he would want to again. Sora did not think that letting Harry have access to any of that stuff was a good idea, but Peter insisted that Harry could put it to good use and be a better person than his father was as a whole new Goblin, if he had the chance and ever wanted to, so he had to take Peter's word for it. It was a lot easier to believe when Gwen vouched for Peter's beliefs. As for Harry himself, the three heroes did end up handing him over to the authorities, but they made sure to make it clear that Harry was not responsible for the Hobgoblin's attacks, and that he needed some serious help far more than he did a prison sentence. Looking at Harry and how broken up he seemed to be, it was easy for everyone to believe that, and that was why Peter and Gwen ended up watching with heavy hearts as Harry was carted off to the Ravencroft Institute. They did not like the fact that he would still be in a place that was full of criminals, but they did acknowledge that it was best suited for helping Harry with his problems, especially after the breakdown he had recently had. Peter's only hope was that being around people like Electro and Eddie Brock would not cause Harry to relapse back into the monster he had just fought with.

In regards to the Hobgoblin matter, Spider-Man, Sora, and Spider-Woman informed the police that a die-hard follower from Green Goblin's old gang had forced Harry to design the tech and found a way to force Harry onto the Globulin Green so that he would be driven insane. They made it a point to make it clear that the attempt had failed, and Harry had not been the one flying around in the Hobgoblin suit, but the whole event had caused him to suffer his breakdown, and it only grew worse when that same follower put on the Hobgoblin suit and attempted to make it look like Harry was the one behind the mask. To round out the story, they concluded by saying that they were able to save Harry and destroy the tech, but the actual criminal had escaped, and they could not get a good look at him. With Captain Stacy's help, the story seemed to be bought by most everyone, but some people were still not entirely sure.

"You're sure that no one is suspicious about the cover story," Janet asked the three teens and the police captain the following day after they had all gathered together at Avengers Mansion. Sora, Peter, and Gwen had taken another day off on the grounds that they had heard what had happened to Harry, and the whole thing had left them feeling rather upset, and while some people were upset about that, no one complained. Even Peter's aunt was willing to back up the story, as she felt that Peter needed to take a day off from everything in order to deal with another good friend suffering from such a tragedy.

"The only one that seems to question it by that much would be Detective Watanabe, but after I had a brief talk, she agreed to keep quiet about it if she ever found out the full story," George explained with a smile.

"You know, I think out of all the cops I've ever talked to, she's got to be pretty high up on my list of favorites," Peter admitted.

"I certainly hope my dad's on that list," Gwen playfully teased.

"Of course he is. He's got the top spot, easy," Peter grinned in return as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Seeing that and how Gwen snuggled into Peter's embrace with a happy hum made the others smile a little more. When Harry was being taken away yesterday, he had spotted Gwen in the crowd and gave her a small nod with a sad smile, making it clear that he no longer had any problem with the two of them splitting up. Ever since then, Gwen had been hanging on to Peter quite a bit, clearly reveling in how she could finally be close to him like she had wanted to be for so long without worry. The fact that the two looked so cute together was just a small bonus for everyone, but it did not keep anyone from missing what Gwen's father said next on the matter regarding Yuri.

"I have to agree on your feelings about Watanabe, Peter," George confessed. "Her recent actions and attitude on this case, despite the circumstances surrounding it, and her service record since joining the force are all great reflections of how good a cop she is, especially given the fact that she's one of the few honest cops on the force who've never been corrupted by any means. It all makes me think that she would be the perfect choice to be the next police captain."

"Easy there, Captain Stacy. You almost sound like you're thinking about retiring," Janet cautioned with her usual cheerful grin.

"Not retiring, Ms Van Dyne. Just moving up the ladder," George corrected.

That got everyone's attention, but none more so than Gwen. "Dad? What're you talking about?"

"I've been meaning to tell you for a few days now, sweetie," George admitted. "Our constant watch on L. Thompson Lincoln had recently revealed that he had the police commissioner in his pocket. While that and other things that recently came to light did finally provide us with enough evidence to finally put him away without bail, it wasn't until after he decided to try and go underground that it came out. Still, it was enough for the mayor to have the previous commissioner fired, and since I was a leading cop on the case, the mayor offered me to take over the position."

"Are you saying what I think your saying," Peter asked in awe.

"Yep, starting in a few days' time, I'll be taking over as Commissioner George Stacy of NYPD," George proudly announced.

"Dad, that's great," Gwen cheered, bouncing up from her seat to give her father the biggest congratulatory hug she could.

"Yeah, congratulations, sir," Peter grinned in agreement, while Sora and Janet both gave a short applause for the man. Of course, that did not stop him from making his next joke. "I just hope that doesn't mean you plan on putting some kind of Spider-Signal on one of the precincts' roof so that you can contact me and my partner for help."

While Gwen gave Peter an expectant look at how he had called her his partner as opposed to partner-in-training, George could only chuckle in response to the joke as he quipped back, "Now why would I do that when I have Spider-Man, his spectacular partner, and his amazing friends on speed-dial?"

Everyone got a laugh out of that, both out of the way George had worded that, and how true the statement was. When the laughter ended, Sora jumped in to say, "So if you're naming Yuri as the new police captain, then I guess we should congratulate her, too the next time we see her."

"Yes we should," Peter agreed. "Of course, she and Captain…sorry, Commissioner Stacy aren't the only ones that deserve congratulations." Everyone looked at him weirdly for that as he reached into his bag and began searching for something in it, only to stop and turn a slightly annoyed look to Gwen as he said, "Before anything else though, I believe you need to return something that belongs to me, Missy."

Gwen grinned a little as she extracted the web-shooter she had swiped from Peter from her purse, and joked, "I was starting to think you were going just going to let me keep it so I could build my own based off of this one's design."

"Now why would I do that," Peter asked as he accepted the shooter and stuff it into his bag. When his hand came out of the bag again, though, it was holding a different pair of web-shooters in it that he happily held out to Gwen as he finished his statement. "When I was already going to give you these."

"Peter…Are those…" Gwen stuttered in surprise even as she hesitantly reached out to take the wrist devices, thinking Peter was going to pull a fast one on her at any second.

Peter did no such thing, but actually continued smiling while handing them over to her as he declared, "Yep. As of now, you've officially earned your webs, Spider-Woman."

If he was going to say anything else in addition to that, he would end up having to wait, because the second that Gwen had strapped the devices onto her own wrists, she let out a loud squeal of joy and jumped onto Peter, knocking him down onto his back as she hugged him tightly. "Thank you! Thank you so much, Peter! This is now officially, the greatest day ever," Gwen cheered. She then pulled back and boldly added, "I could kiss you right now!"

"Well what's stopping you, pretty lady," Peter teased in return, though his smile was filled with nothing but honest love and adoration for the blonde in his arms.

The two were actually starting to lean in towards each other so that they could kiss, when a soft cough cut into the moment, reminding them that they were not alone at the moment. "Aside from the fact that her dad and all the rest of us are still here, you mean," Sora asked, being the one who had made the fake cough.

Janet lightly swatted Sora on the arm for interrupting the moment, and quickly said, "Not that you should let that stop you. Please, go on. Don't mind us."

"What're you saying?! Yes! Please, mind us! Why do you think I coughed in the first place," Sora pleaded, but anyone could tell that he was not entirely serious.

"I have to agree with your friend on that," George stated, but despite having his arms crossed in an attempt to look like an annoyed parent, everyone could still see the hint of mirth in his expression that gave away how he really felt about that.

"Uh…Maybe we probably shouldn't…" Peter stuttered with a small blush.

"Yeah, maybe not," Gwen agreed as she slowly crawled off Peter with a matching blush. Just before she had backed away completely though, that boldness from earlier made her lean back in and place a kiss on Peter's cheek before she whispered, "Doesn't mean we can't later on though."

Hearing that made Peter's sheepish smile turn into a happy grin once more, and everyone had a feeling that he was going to be in a bit of a daze for a while, so Janet took this opportunity to step in. "Well, if it's finally official, I think you're going to need something else besides webs if you're still going to do this. Unless you want to be stuck with that outfit you've been wearing up until now," the Wasp declared as she pulled up a case that had been resting beside her chair ever since they all came in.

Placing the case on the table between them and sliding it over to Gwen, Janet just nodded for Gwen to open it up and the blonde did so at once. When she saw what was inside, her smile somehow grew even brighter upon seeing its contents, and she immediately turned to Wasp and said, "It looks perfect."

"So why don't you see if it fits just as well," Janet asked with a knowing smirk.

* * *

Later that night, a group of thugs were attempting to break in to one of the convenience stores in the city, and they were all set with a get-away car waiting in the alley just a block down from their location. It would have seemed like easy money to anyone else who wanted to pursue a criminal lifestyle, had it not been for the arrival of New York's most well-known superhero. "You know, I gotta say, even after fighting crime bosses, supervillains, and just about everything else under the sun, it always feels good to just relax and deal with a group of cliché thugs like you guys," Spider-Man quipped as he arrived on the scene, shinning the light of his Spider-Signal out over the group to better let them know they had been caught. "Really, kicking your butts is actually like a kind of stress relief for me after all of that. You know, like how you would go to fight a simple mob or something after tackling a boss fight in a video game."

"Aw man! How's he always show up wherever we go," the lead thug asked aloud as his buddies all rushed to charge him.

"Well, I could say that it's because I've got connections in the police force, or that I've got a sixth sense for danger, which is actually true, but to be quite honest, it's because you guys are so loud, and because of how badly you stink. Literally," Spider-Man quipped as he kicked one thug aside, and then flipped over that one to punch another. As he was webbing the first one to the ground, he added on, "Seriously guys, you do know that being a dirty criminal does not mean you skip on your personal hygiene, right? Showers were invented for a reason."

"How about I just wash you away, you stupid little bug," a third thug growled as he pulled out a knife. He never got the chance to use it though, as his knife hand was suddenly webbed up by someone other than Spider-Man, and his webbed hand was then pulled into his face by whoever was on the other end of the web-line. Thankfully, his knife was so wrapped up in webbing that it did not cut him even a little with his fist connected with his face.

"I'd honestly be surprised to find out you were smart enough to wash anything," a female voice jested as the new arrival dropped down to join the fray. "I mean, you were stupid enough to bring a knife to a spider fight after all."

"True that, Spider-Woman," Spidey nodded as he punched another thug in the face without even looking at him.

Upon hearing the newcomer's name, the remaining thugs either panicked and tried to make a run for their getaway car, or they just tried to up their game and use whatever weapons they brought to take out both spiders. Neither move was met with success, as Spider-Man easily took down the attackers, while Spider-Woman tied up the runners in a large web. Working together, both spiders easily swung over and disabled the getaway car and the thugs inside it before they could even pull away from the area, and in no time at all, all the bad guys were webbed up to a wall, the ground, or a nearby lamppost.

One of the only ones that were still conscious could not help but groan, "Great. Like things weren't bad enough with just Spider-Man. Now there's two of 'em, and the new one's a dame."

"'Dame?' Seriously? Who says that anymore," Spider-Man questioned, though whether he was entirely joking or not, no one knew for sure.

"Got me, Spider-Man, but I couldn't care less. I much prefer any names that you come up with for me," Spider-Woman shrugged with a flirtatious tone that sent a few tingles up Spider-Man's spine.

A short time later, the police arrived on the scene to find the captured thugs, along with a single card that read "Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and Spider-Woman." Meanwhile high up on the Empire State Building, said heroes were actually standing proud as they looked out over the city, and at that point, Spider-Man could not help but take in Gwen's hero attire once more. It was mostly black, with the upper torso, shoulders, and arms being white, while the soles of her feet were blue and the underarms of her suit were dark pink with a blue web pattern. Her mask was all white as well, save for the eyes, which were a very light blue and outlined in dark pink, and she also wore a white hood over her head, which was dark pink on the inside with the same blue web pattern as the ones on her arms. The final touch was the blue spider symbol on her back that was identical to the one on Spidey's back, save for the color. All-in-all, the look definitely worked for Gwen, and seeing her in the costume, and how said outfit seemed to fit on her like a second skin while hugging her every curve, Peter could not help but stare for a few minutes every now and then.

"Not bad, partner," Peter admitted.

"Well, I had a pretty good teacher," Gwen shrugged. She then lifted her mask up so that her mouth was exposed, allowing Peter to see she was grinning at him rather slyly as she sauntered over to him and said, "And I think he deserves a reward of his own."

"And just what kind of reward did you have in mind," Peter questioned with a hidden smile of his own, his arms wrapping around Gwen once she was close enough on instinct.

"I'm sure you can make a pretty good guess," Gwen teased as she lifted Peter's mask to the same position hers was currently in.

When her arms then moved to rest around his neck, Peter did not hesitate to pull Gwen in close, nor did he resist when her lips came into contact with his in a gentle, loving kiss. If anything, his hold on Gwen actually tightened a little more as he returned her affectionate gesture, and when he did, Gwen felt like she had taken off and landed on Cloud Nine. The two would have continued their affectionate embrace for an endless amount of time, had the sound of sirens not reached their ears and forced them to break apart so that they could look in the direction of said sirens. They probably would have broken apart to check things out, but when they saw Sora already flying in that direction, they just shrugged, figuring he could handle it for now, and returned to what they were doing before. As they did, only one word flittered across both of their minds. _'Finally!'_

* * *

 ** _AN: Phew! [pants a lot] Okay! That was...*pant*...That took a lot longer...Than I thought. Seriously, I did not expect this particular part of the story to be so long! But, it's done now, and so many things happened here. Gwen's got her famous Spider-Gwen costume, which is indeed the white and black number we always see her wearing when she's the spider-powered hero, she's going by the handle of Spider-Woman, and then there's all the other Spidey stuff that went down here. Namely the appearance of Yuri Watanabe, Harry becoming the Hobgoblin, and even a few references to Into the Spider-Verse. I'm sure you guys must've caught that, right?_**

 ** _Anyways, Harry becoming the Hobgoblin does indeed take inspiration from the 2017 Spider-Man series, and the Hobgoblin suit is a match to that one in said series. Add in how his arsenal was largely the same, but with some Spectacular Spider-Man stuff added in as well, and well...nuff said, true believer! Also, I mentioned a little while back that Sora was going to try and help Peter and Gwen get Harry back to normal, and he did. He just didn't really do too much. After all, Sora wasn't really there to fight Peter and Gwen's battle for them. He just had to give a small nudge here and there._**

 ** _The story behind how Gwen got her costume, I think is a little more important though. Now, if you've read or at least know a little bit about the comics version of Spider-Gwen, you would know that Wasp did indeed design some of Gwen's spider-gear, so obviously, having Janet design Gwen's costume was a little nod to that. As for her starting outfit, just think of it as a Spider-Gwen version of the home-made suit that Spidey had in Spider-Man Homecoming, and you'd have a good basic idea on what it'd look like._**

 ** _Gwen: You know, I gotta ask, how necessary was it really to include Yuri in this chapter._**

 ** _AN: In my personal opinion, very. I really like Yuri, at least when she's not gone off the deep-end and being a deadly vigilante. She's been one of my favorite Spider-Man supporting characters ever since I played the PS4 Spider-Man game, and I really wanted to bring her into this story. I also didn't want to kill off Gwen's dad, but he was already the NYPD police captain, so I woulda had to leave Yuri as a detective if I wanted them both. Then I thought to myself, why not give ol George a promotion to a big job, and then boom. We get both George Stacy in a high-level position of the police, and Captain Watanabe as well. Easy-peasy._**

 ** _Spider-Man: And the whole thing about Gwen's dad figuring out my secret identity?_**

 ** _AN: Also something that draws from the comics. Of course, there had been more than a few times in the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon that it was hinted that Captain Stacy had figured out Peter's secret identity on his own, even after the episode where the Bugle ran the story that said Peter was Spidey, and then ran another that said otherwise, so would it really be a stretch to say that he wouldn't eventually admit to it?_**

 ** _And of course, there was also the final scene at the end of the chapter. Not gonna lie, yes, that was necessary. Both for the sake of debuting Spider-Gwen's official superhero suit, and for the kiss scene between Peter and Gwen, because I think we can all agree, that was long overdue, especially after how we all waited for so long to see them get together only to be disappointed when it didn't happen at the end of season 2. Plus, out of all the Spidey pairings, I have to say, Peter &Gwen is one of my top favorites. It's only made better if it would be in a world where Gwen also has spider-powers and is able to fight crime with Peter, so I guess you could say I've got my dream Spider-pairing here._**

 ** _Sora: Is anyone else not willing to talk about how me and the Avengers barely did anything here?_**

 ** _AN: Dude, this was basically a Spider-Man-centric chapter. What did you expect? You were there for a few important parts, but in the long run, of course the story was going to focus more on Spidey and his pals. Be glad that you're now counted among those pals, otherwise you probably wouldn't have appeared at all._**

 ** _Oh, and before I forget, I'm sure some of you probably caught that little reference to the Arrow-verse earlier on in the chapter when Peter was helping Gwen train. You know, the scene where Peter made a surprise attack on Gwen even after she finished the obstacle course? Let me go ahead and say right now that yes, it was inspired by this scene:_**

 ** _[rolls a clip from Season 1 of The Flash, in which Oliver is training Barry and shoots him with a pair of remote controlled crossbows]_**

 ** _Yeah, of course Peter's not going to do the exact same thing to Gwen. For one thing, he loves her. No way is he going to willingly hurt her like that. And for another thing...He's not Oliver, or Batman, or Daredevil, or any other hero who would go and do something like that to a friend. Besides, it's not like Oliver didn't get what was coming to him for that stunt._**

 ** _[rolls another clip, this one from the Elseworlds special event in which Barry shoots Oliver with remote controlled crossbows, laughs, and gets a picture of it]_**

 ** _HAHAHA! Oh, that is STILL so funny! Man, after four years, Barry finally got his payback!_**

 ** _Sora: [also laughing, but trying not to] Okay, I know I probably shouldn't be laughing, but...hehe...it is kinda funny._**

 ** _Spider-Man: [laughing almost as hard as author] Right?! And knowing Gwen, if I did something like that to her, she would've retaliated just like that._**

 ** _Gwen: He's right. I would've. [joins the rest of the cast in laughing at the clip]_**

 ** _Hawkeye: Oh! Let's see that again!_**

 ** _[hits replay so that they can watch Barry shooting Oliver again]_**

 ** _AN: Well, I think we're going to be enjoying ourselves with this for a while, so I'll let you guys all get Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _What starts out as an average day for Sora and his friends, quickly takes a turn when the Avengers are almost systematically taken down one by one, namely by Zemo, Enchantress, and their new, villainous allies. Of course, Sora is spared from that same fate for the most part, but only because Night Hunter has set up the perfect distraction for him on the other side of New York: a constant, almost unending swarm of Heartless. Unable to help his teammates without leaving the Heartless to harm innocent people, can Sora fend off the dwellers of darkness with Spider-Man and Spider-Woman's help? Will they be able to save the Avengers before it's too late? Or will the shadows finally take the Keyblade Samurai along with the rest of this world? An epic struggle and a shocking return are both soon to come, in the next thrilling chapter!_**

 ** _AN: [stops laughing long enough to see chapter preview has ended] Ahem, yeah, the Masters of Evil are on the way, but it looks like their not the only ones who are going to show up next time. Just who else could it be? Well, only way to find out is to tune in next time, and until then..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**

 ** _Ruby: Uh, lyoko? Weiss wanted me to tell you that she has several messages that you need to see, along with a few calls._**

 ** _AN: [sighs tiredly] Ruby, could you do me a favor?_**

 ** _Ruby: What?_**

 ** _AN: Go find Weiss, and explain to her that my secretary is out today...because I don't even HAVE a secretary!_**

 ** _Ruby: But then...why is there a secretary desk at the front entrance?_**

 ** _AN: It's a reception desk for visitors to sign in at!_**

 ** _Ruby: And the phone?_**

 ** _AN: I...I'm not really sure, actually. Look, look, just go find Weiss and tell her that already, please!_**

 ** _Ruby: Okay, okay. Can I have some more of those cookies you made for us on my way out?_**

 ** _AN: Yeah, sure thing, kid. Help yourself. I feel like you're gonna need the comfort food after that talk with Weiss._**


	14. Masters of Evil

**_AN: Wow. It always feels like its been forever since I've updated a story this quickly whenever it happens, but then again, considering the content of this chapter, and all the stuff that is going to happen here, I can't say that it's surprising that this chapter's now finished and out there._**

 ** _Wasp: No kidding. I'm actually pretty excited, even if it is a return to the EMH main storyline. I mean, sure, we've already done an alternate version of this adventure in Code Avengers, but this time around, it feels like it's going to be especially good._**

 ** _Sora: Not to mention some of the stuff that happens on my end of things, because let me tell you guys, not only was that crazy to do, but it was also kinda fun, looking back on it now._**

 ** _Hawkeye: So why are we all just sitting here talking about this stuff? Why not let them get into the chapter so we can start rehearsing for later ones, like the scenes on HYDRA Island when Sora..._**

 ** _AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits controls]_**

 ** _Hawkeye: NOOOO! [ducks his head down in anticipation for the impending pain, but finds it never comes after a few moments] Wait, what happened? [looks to see that the only thing on him is a red cape with a hood along with a pair of yellow gauntlets, a black bow, and a_** ** _rapier] Uh, was any of this supposed to actually hurt me? I think you're slipping a little lyoko._**

 ** _AN: Am I? [smirks evilly in anticipation]_**

 ** _Ruby: [from somewhere in the background off screen] Hey! Who took my cape?!_**

 ** _Yang: [from somewhere in the background off screen] I know someone didn't touch my gauntlets!_**

 ** _Weiss: [from somewhere in the backgound off screen] Who's the degenerate that dared to steal Myrtenaster?!_**

 ** _Blake: [from somewhere...oh, you get the idea] Where. Is. My. BOW?!_**

 ** _Hawkeye: [pales more and more with each question that's being asked before looking at AN] You didn't._**

 ** _AN: You tell me. [grins as he turns to call out] Oh girls! Hawkeye did it, and he's right here!_**

 ** _Hawkeye: Oh no! No he's not! Gotta-go-BYE! [immediately dashes out with a smokey outline of him being left in his wake while Team RWBY chases after him]_**

 ** _Riku: Anyone else feel like they've been hanging around here a little too much lately? I mean, I don't think I've even seen the Ben 10 or Star Wars casts here nearly as much as those guys have been lately._**

 ** _AN: Hey, don't look at me. I'm not about to tell those four to leave. Not when I haven't finished preparations for the safety precautions against anyone from the world of RWBY._**

 ** _Iron Man: You're making safety precautions just for people from that series?_**

 ** _AN: Have you seen that series? I feel like it would be necessary if I want to safely use any spoiler gags on them._** ** _Ahem, let's move on to the review answers really quick before we get into things, shall we?_**

 ** _Spider-Man: I'll go first, if no one minds. Namely with a response to the "Guest" of 7/16/2019, and his comment on my luck in Far From Home. I wouldn't say it was all bad. I mean, at least I got the girl in the end, unlike in Homecoming, but yeah, there's going to be little chance that MCU me will be able to handle his secret identity being exposed like that. Still, you have to admit, it was cool that they brought back J.K. Simmons to play Jameson for that scene, right?_**

 ** _AN: Yeah, that was definitely cool. Now, "Spiderfan626", you're questions will be answered today, my good friend, and I think you may all be quite surprised for what will happen._**

 ** _"CT7567Rules", to answer your question about the RWBY fanfiction, in terms of an actual story...there is no deal, because I haven't been able to think of anything for it yet. At least anything in terms of a full-on story for the RWBY series, crossover or otherwise, beyond just a brief adventure in my KH stories. At least, not yet, but I'm sure that an idea will come to me sooner or later, so you never know. Just keep your eyes open for that, and I'm sure you'll enjoy the adventure when Ruby and her friends make an appearance in one of my KH series._**

 ** _Gwen: Oh, hey "Dragon Rider 66", Kairi's not here right now, partly because we can't say You-Know-Who's name out loud when she and Sora are around [mouths Xehanort just to be clear on that], but you don't have to worry about that request too much. She and I are already looking into whether or not we can give the MCU Beck the same treatment for what he pulled on MCU Peter._**

 ** _AN: Yes, and while we're addressing said reviewer, I know it might be a bad time to mention this to you, but I'm afraid that the studio of lyokoMARVELanime does not accept gift cards, certificates, coupons, or other various vouchers of any kind that would allow Dumbfool (and yes, that is now my new official name for the Merc with a Mouth) to appear in any stories, and even if we did...well, he's still out hunting for those associates in a vain attempt to fulfill your request. So sorry. Oh, and just to be clear, no one's going to be referring to Gwen as Ghost-Spider or Spider-Gwen here. She's going to be sticking with Spider-Woman for a long time to come._**

 ** _And finally, to address your last concern, you don't need to worry about Tony, and before you freak out about Sora, you don't need to worry about him either, because if I can help it, no one's going to die in this story's Infinity War/Endgame, and even if they do, keep in mind that this is a Kingdom Hearts AU. The only person who's ever actually died so far in that series was Eraqus, Xehanort, and near as anyone or at least as I can tell, Vanitas and Riku Replica, so I don't think you have much to worry about there. Besides, I did mention that there were going to be more than a few differences in this version of the Infinity War. I'll give you a hint about what one of those differences is. It involves a certain blade._**

 ** _Well, I think that's all the review answers I wanted to address, considering those are the only ones with questions or that needed responses to, so let's get on with the show, shall we? Avengers, to the chapter!_**

 ** _I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter XIV**

News spread fast about the newest web-slinger in New York, and no one was surprised that the only one to get any good photos of Spider-Woman was the Bugle. Of course, most if not all of those photos showed her working alongside Spider-Man, and as a result, you would think that the headlines would be something to accuse her of being a menace like the original wall-crawler. Imagine Peter's surprise when J. Jonah Jameson's first front page story with his last set of Spidey pictures for the Bugle did not use the word menace, threat, or any other label that the Bugle's editor normally went for at all, but instead, it read "Spider-Couple, Web of Love." Granted, it was not entirely wrong, but the reasons why Jameson drew up that conclusion did not sit well with Peter.

"You really think he's just saying that because we both have spider-powers," Gwen questioned at the lunch that same day. It was only her, Sora, Yuffie, Peter, and Miles at their table right then, so there was no need to worry about anyone overhearing them. Of course, Miles did look a little bit down after hearing that Anya was out sick at the moment, but it was really only noticeable to the girls.

"And there's also the fact that we're always working together, plus the fact that our names are really similar," Peter reasoned. "I mean, I'd bet that he'd be saying this stuff even if you had just gone with something that had 'spider' in it as opposed to Spider-Woman."

"Hey, look on the bright side. At least he's not calling you two menaces or bad guys," Yuffie shrugged with a smile.

"She has a point," Miles nodded. "After all the stuff you told me about your old boss the other day before you turned in those pictures, I was half-expecting to see something about Gwen being your new partner in crime, or some other scathing article."

"I thought newspapers were supposed to only ever print the truth. Why does Jameson always make it seem like you were the villain when just about everyone knows you were trying to save lives," Sora asked Peter.

"It's an editorial, Sora. They're not always based in facts. Mainly just whatever they can get at that moment. Plus, there's also the fact that Pickle-Puss just doesn't like me," Peter explained.

"As Peter or as Spider-Man," Yuffie questioned.

"Uh…It's a little hard to say whether or not it's both sometimes, but I can definitely say that it's always Spider-Man he hates," Peter admitted with a grin that came off as more humorous than sheepish.

Gwen just giggled at Peter's joke while placing a hand on his shoulder in that gentle way that all girlfriends would with their boyfriends and the other three could only smile at this latest reminder of how cute the two were together. While most of the city was going crazy about the newest celebrity superhero gossip (which was apparently being referred to as #Spider-Couple), everyone at Midtown was actually really taken in by how Peter and Gwen had finally gotten together. Just about their entire class, if not the whole school seemed to think that the two were the top couple, even in the case of Peter's ex, Liz Allan, and the two were constantly bombarded with congratulations or similar praises for finally getting together ever since they officially announced their getting together. Peter and Gwen's friend Mary Jane seemed to be the most vocal about the good news, even if she was just watching on with a knowing grin that made it seem like she knew it was going to happen all along, but Sora and the others were sure that she was liable to cheer as loudly as she could from the top of the city if she was given the chance.

Of course, there were downsides to seeing Peter and Gwen together. The most minor of those downsides was how their fellow senior, Sally Avril, was apparently determined to rant and rave over how, in her words, Midtown's champion geeks could never possibly be the it couple of their school, and there was also the fact that she was almost always glaring scathingly at the two every time they were in a room with her. Peter did not really blamed Sally too much at first, given that she was a close friend of Liz, but after a while, it was getting a little annoying. Even Liz had started to think so and asked her friend to back off, but that just barely stopped Sally for too long. The other downside was of a more personal nature for Sora, because every time he looked at the two, he could not help but think about Kairi, and that just made him worry about her wherever she could be. Luckily, there were more than enough distractions to keep him from getting too mopey for very long.

One such distraction was the news of what had happened to Harry. Gossip vines in High School did tend to make various pieces of news travel fast, but Peter and Gwen were both determined to keep the record straight and in-line with the official story that they and Gwen's father had set up. Despite what had happened the previous year, the entire football team actually felt really bad for what had happened to their former running-back, and felt that they should all try and visit him at some point to show their support. Of course, the only ones that had been able to visit Harry at the moment were his mother, Peter, and Gwen, but beyond that, his doctors felt that it was best that no one else saw him for the moment. On one of their visits, Harry reassured Peter that he would keep his secret identity hidden, and revealed that he had figured out Gwen's as well after thinking things over a little. Peter was a little worried that the news would probably have set Harry back in his treatment a little, but Harry just winked and joked with him by reminding him that in some species of spiders, the female ones would often eat their mates. Peter did not find the joke nearly as amusing as his best friend and girlfriend when she heard about it, but they both did their best to reassure him that it was just in good fun.

At the moment, the group was just enjoying a good lunch during their break between classes, while discussing their plans for that evening. "So, I was actually going to run through a few drills with Cap at the mansion's training room today. Any of you kids want to join us," Yuffie finally asked, getting the ball rolling on the afterschool plans discussion.

"Nah, I think me and Gwen are gonna pass, Yuffie," Peter waved off. "I mean, I'm flattered, but I don't think either of us are quite ready to try one of Captain America's training runs, let alone one that he does with you."

"Agreed," Gwen nodded. She knew just from watching him in old documentaries that any training that Captain America probably did was a lot more intense than what she, a rookie superhero, was probably ready for, spider-powers or not. "If anything, I think we're just going to do a few patrols after I finish up with work for my internship at ESU. Peter may no longer work there since he now technically has one with Stark, but I still do."

Yuffie nodded in understanding, but she was a little surprised that Sora had not mentioned anything about how her training sims with T'Challa could be a lot worse than the ones she did with Cap, having experienced them himself. Turning to the Keybearer, she saw that he had a look of silent, serious contemplation on his face. This would probably not be a big deal to anyone had Yuffie not seen that same look several times over in the past week, so it was only natural that she would be concerned about him. "Hey Sora, everything okay," the ninja asked.

Sora did not say anything in reply, and that prompted Miles to give him a gentle nudge in order to bring him back down to Earth with the rest of them. "Huh," Sora asked with a start. "Sorry. I guess my mind was miles away."

"Any reason for that? You've been really quiet lately," Gwen pointed out.

"Have you had any visions lately that are bothering you," Peter asked, thinking that might have been the cause for his worries.

Thinking over whether or not he should tell them, Sora admitted, "It's not that. To be honest, I haven't really had any visions since Spira, but that's not what's bothering me."

"Then what is it," Miles asked.

"It's the Heartless," Sora revealed, making everyone look at him in confusion. "We haven't seen any of them in a long time now. I don't mean in general, but more specifically, on this world. Ever since Peter and I beat the Guard Armor that Night Hunter sent to attack us on my first day here, it seems like the Heartless have become nonexistent. We didn't see any of them even once while we were in Wakanda or dealing with Leader's Gamma World scheme, and meanwhile, we've run into them almost nonstop on all the other worlds we've visited."

"Now that you mention it, that is a little weird," Yuffie admitted with a thoughtful expression of her own. "Normally the only time the Heartless ever go that quiet on a world would be after that world's Keyhole has been sealed. There's always a chance that they could pop up again at any time, but not to the point where a Keyblade wielder would be needed to deal with them. Either way, this is definitely strange."

"Not to mention you guys haven't really had any run-ins with that Night Hunter creep on this world since he showed his face here," Miles added on. When the others all looked at him in question, Miles knew that they were silently pointing out the fact that Night Hunter had not technically shown his face to anyone during any of his appearances, and he rolled his eyes as he said, "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, we do, and all of that is why I'm worried," Sora stated, getting them back on topic. "Call me crazy, but this lack of activity from Night Hunter and the Heartless on this world is giving me a really bad feeling. It feels like some kind of calm before the storm, and that said storm is going to hit pretty soon."

"So…what should we do," Peter asked, already deciding that he was going to help out Sora in whatever way that he could.

"First thing after school lets out, I'm going to hit the streets and search every part of the city that I can for even the smallest hint of the Heartless," Sora answered. "If they're hiding anywhere in New York, then I've gotta find them."

"You can count on us to help then," Gwen promised as she gestured between her and Peter.

"And me too," Miles volunteered. When the others looked at him weirdly again, Miles shrugged and said, "What? I never said I was going to go out there and search with you guys. I know I can't help like that, but you can't tell me that you guys wouldn't appreciate having a guy in the chair, can you?"

"A what," all four superheroes asked at once.

"A guy in the chair," Miles repeated, only earning blank looks in return. "Oh come on! You know, the guy in the chair? The guy with a headset who gives you all kinds of info, like on where to go, what to look for, and gives you a bunch of other stuff because he's got access to various systems and has a bunch of computers and screens around him. You know, like how Batman has Alfred, or Kira Yamato from _Gundam SEED_ has Miriallia, or Green Arrow has Overwatch, or Iron Man has his computer butler…"

"You mean JARVIS," Sora asked.

"Yeah, that. I could be your guy in the chair, or at least Gwen and Peter's," Miles finally finished.

"I don't know, Miles. I never really needed a guy in the chair," Peter shrugged with uncertainty.

"But it would be pretty helpful to have every now and then," Gwen reasoned. "Besides, it's not like we don't have other ways of getting info on what's going on around the city besides what we find just by swinging around, or flying around in Sora's case."

"Exactly! I could listen out on the info coming in from police scanners and stuff, assuming you guys have access to that," Miles almost cheered, glad to see that at least someone was on board with his idea.

"Hey, if it helps us to figure out why we haven't seen Night Hunter or any Heartless around on this world lately, then I'm all for it," Sora agreed.

Peter let the idea mull over in his head for a little while longer. It was true that Miles was very smart and could probably be a big help to them, at least in the capacity that he was talking about. Add in the fact that he did know that there were a few times when he probably could have used that kind of help, and Peter could not help but concede defeat on this matter. At least, not entirely. "Okay, but don't be doing that right away. You've still got some homework to deal with first, so after school lets out, you get home, deal with that as fast as possible, and then get on your computer."

"Right, and if my parents ask, I'll tell them I'm just playing online with my friends or something," Miles finished.

"Uh…sure, do that," Peter shrugged, having been just seconds away from saying that as well. He was beginning to think that there was a chance he was underestimating Miles Morales a little bit.

"Okay then. I guess that's everything regarding our afterschool stuff," Yuffie determined right when the bell rang. "And just in time to return to the torture."

"Oh don't be so dramatic. It's not that bad," Sora lightly chided.

"You're right. It's worse," Yuffie joked, getting laughs from the others as she waved goodbye to the group while hurrying to her next class.

* * *

When school finally let out for the day, Miles practically raced out of the building so he could get home and finish his homework assignments in order to help his superhero buddies, while Sora and the two Spiders ducked into an alleyway in order to take off on their patrol. If the Keybearer was worried about his own homework, he sure did not show it. Then again, there was also the chance he had forgotten all about it due to be so worried about the Heartless. Either way, it was likely well out of his mind as he took off into the sky with Spider-Man and Spider-Woman swinging after him while Yuffie watched them go from the street below.

Sighing a little as she watched them go, Yuffie turned to return to the mansion, resisting the urge to get there via ninja travel. Apparently, people found making incredible leap across the streets and buildings something to gawk at, and while Yuffie did not mind getting a good amount of praise and recognition, there were times that she preferred to stay out of the spotlight, so she had to settle for traveling around the city like a normal person. That said, part of Yuffie was tempted to suit up in her hero attire and join Sora and the others on their Heartless hunt. She was not usually a vengeful person, but Yuffie did still carry quite the sore spot towards the dwellers of darkness for what they did to her home, and since she was not sure if there was a greater master mind behind its fall, she had to settle for destroying every Heartless she could. Hence the reason why part of her was a little sad she had already promised Cap that she would join him for training that evening earlier today. Yuffie was not one to back out on plans that had been made in advance, especially when they were made in direct response to a challenge like the one that Steve had subtly made by saying that she could join him if she thought she could keep up. Yuffie fully intended to remind the super soldier as to why she was made an honorary Dora Milaje in Wakanda after that remark.

Yuffie's thoughts on how she was going to put Captain America in his place later that day were put on hold when her keen eyes caught sight of something a few blocks away which gave her pause. Wanting to be absolutely certain that she was not seeing things, Yuffie quickly sped up her pace and rounded the corner, only to gasp in shock at the sight of someone in a billowing black coat and a horned headdress that could only have belonged to one person in all of the worlds. Sure, she knew that on this world and one or two others, the person in question was a character of fiction, celebrated as one of the greatest villains in fantasy, but to her, this person being here was cause for alarm, especially if the individual was real.

"It can't be," Yuffie whispered as she started to give chase, tossing down a smoke bomb as she did. When the smoke cleared, Yuffie was revealed to have changed from her casual clothes and into her dark colored hero attire. Don't ask how she was able to make the change so quickly, because she never gave a straight answer, if any. Now suited up, Yuffie leapt into the air and began running along walls, leaping across lampposts, and basically going full ninja mode as she pursued her target. Eventually, she found her quarry heading into a rather large alley, and upon seeing the figure in full, the ninja paled quite a bit at seeing who it was. "Maleficent! What…How is she here?!"

Indeed, the mistress of all evil was standing in the alley way, surveying the area without a care in the world, and Yuffie could tell that this was not just someone wearing a costume, because there was no way for an average civilian to exude that aura of unease and terror that only the real Maleficent could. Still, last that Yuffie had heard, the dark fairy had perished at the hands of two brave warriors ten years ago, one of which was said to be a Keyblade wielder, so how could she even be here. It was all one big mystery, but Yuffie was not the type to puzzle over questions regarding an obvious bad guy; she was the type to take action in order to stop a threat when it was right in front of her. So, it would come as no surprise that her first instinct was to draw a set of shuriken stars from her pouch and toss them right at the most evil woman in all the worlds, but what was surprising was that Maleficent seemed to sense the attack, and quickly spun around to deflect each of her shuriken with a few simple spins of her staff.

Yuffie did not let that deter her for long, as she quickly leapt down from her perch, fist drawn back to let loose a powerful punch, and she easily let it fly right at Maleficent's face. The old hag just smirked deviously and sidestepped Yuffie's attack, before blocking her follow-up kick and second punch with her staff. The two continued to trade blows for a few more minutes, with Yuffie throwing at more shuriken in order to try and make some openings before she finally drew her signature, large shuriken so that she could use it as a close-range weapon. When Maleficent suddenly teleported in a flash of green smoke though, Yuffie paused in her efforts to bring down the witch of a fairy, confused by the tactic, and that almost caused her to be hit by the blast of magic that Maleficent fired from her free hand.

Now Yuffie knew something was up, and she was not going to give up the chance to call this woman out on the fact. "Whoever you are, you're definitely not who you seem to be," Yuffie accused. "I will give you props for effort though; you are making a very decent impression of Maleficent, but that magic you just used is the wrong kind. Or at the very least, it's not the same as the kind Maleficent is said to use."

"You're quite right, child, and I must admit, I'm surprised you have any knowledge at magic at all," the fake Maleficent commented before she was enveloped in a swirl of greenish-yellow light and smoke. When the spell had finished its work, Yuffie's true opponent now stood revealed in all of her blonde haired, green clad glory with an evil smirk on her face. "And I will admit, I am a little flattered that you thought I was the dark fairy. To be compared to the likes of Maleficent is quite the compliment to one such as myself. Even before her descent into darkness, she was a very impressive sorceress."

Yuffie instantly recognized this person, having reviewed the Avengers' most-wanted list after she joined the team, along with the records of the battles and missions up until now, and she was immediately raising her guard just a little more. "Well I wouldn't expect anymore compliments, Enchantress," Yuffie growled with a glare. "Unless you would consider getting your butt whooped by the greatest ninja in Hollow Bastion as something to be proud of."

"Don't make me laugh, child," Enchantress scoffed, her smirk never once faltering into any sign of worry.

The reason for Enchantress lack of concern, aside from the obvious one, soon became clear to Yuffie when she heard something land behind her, prompting her to glance over her shoulder and see that the red armored villain, Crimson Dynamo had just arrived on the scene, with Executioner stepping out of a portal alongside him shortly after. "Aw, you brought your boy toy and a wind-up soldier. How cute," Yuffie mocked, hoping that it would better hide her growing nerves. Not that she did not think she could handle them on her own, but she certainly would prefer not to if she could help it. Any further remarks she would have made went unspoken when a shadow suddenly fell over her, and she looked up to see a purple man with red eyes glaring down at her as he descended from above. "Simon Williams? But how…" Yuffie started to ask, having heard about the man-turned-ionic-being from the other Avengers shortly after joining them. Before she could finish her question, she ended backing right into something really big, and looked behind her again to see Abomination grinning down at her, savagely. "Oh, Scaly! You're here too," Yuffie nervously quipped, making the gamma villain go from grinning to scowling in seconds. She somehow managed to shake off her nervousness though, and decided to go for the best show of courage she could muster. "Don't think that ganging up on me is going to make a difference though. I'm a lot more than the greatest ninja of Hollow Bastion; I'm an Avenger as well, and we never back down."

"Oh, we're well aware of that, Yuffie," commented the voice of Night Hunter, and Yuffie instantly turned to see the masked swordsman was on the scene as well, leaning casually against the wall with his arms crossed like he had been there the entire time. "Or is it Kage Bara now? Or Rěnzhě? I've heard those are the names that some people have started calling you."

Yuffie pondered the two names for a moment, knowing that one was Japanese for Shadow Rose and the other was Chinese for Ninja, and felt that both were pretty good options for her to consider as a codename, but she quickly remembered where she was at the moment and put a pin in the matter. "For now, just stick with Yuffie, the great ninja master who's going to kick all of your butts!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, little girl," another person interrupted, and when Yuffie turned to face the speaker this time, she was left a little more horrified at what she saw. Or more accurately, who she saw that the speaker was holding captive. "Unless of course you want something…unfortunate to happen to your little friend."

There, being held by one of her wings in between the fingers of Baron Zemo, was none other than an unconscious Wasp, and while it did not seem like she had sustained any other injuries aside from whatever had been done to knock her out, it was a little hard for Yuffie to really tell since Janet was still at her smaller size. Either way, it did not matter, because at that size, all Zemo would have to do was either pull her up into his hand and squeeze, or throw her to the ground where someone could step on her. There was no way that Yuffie was going to let this creeps hurt her friend, but as it stood, she could not really do anything at the moment to stop them either. She could try using a smoke bomb or something to blind them and attempt to get Janet clear, but that idea was also really risky since it would likely cause Zemo to drop Janet, leaving her vulnerable to someone accidentally stepping on her. It seemed like a serious no-win scenario, but Yuffie was not going to leave a friend behind like this, and she kept trying to figure out a way to save both herself and her fellow Avenger, even as Zemo and the other villains continued to try and goad her into action.

Eventually, someone got tired of waiting, and came up behind Yuffie to strike her in the back of her head. The impact from the blow instantly caused Yuffie to go limp and drop her weapons as she fell unconscious, right at the feet of another newcomer. This final person was clearly a young woman, clad in a full body suit that was varying shades of white, and included a hood that she wore over her masked head. The eyes of her suit looked a lot like a pair of red lights, with a matching light set on the forehead, and two more resting just below the eyes. Blue lights ran around her belt, while a single, off-white pistol rested in a holster on the left side of said belt.

"Nicely done, Miss Starr," Night Hunter praised with a mocking clap, while the newcomer seemed to fade in and out of phase every couple minutes or so. "It would seem your phasing abilities live up to their reputation."

"I told you not to call me Ava Starr. My name is Ghost," the mercenary snarled at the swordsman.

"Of course, dear. After all, you're not the innocent scientist you used to be so long as your condition continues to plague you," Night Hunter mocked.

Ghost was ready to run a hand through the shorter man when Zemo said, "That's enough you two." When the two had settled, Zemo walked over as he said, "While his way of congratulations leaves something to be desired, Night Hunter's praise is well-earned my dear. It seems we were right to enlist your services, and I promise, if you stand with us, we will deliver you your chance to be human again."

"I don't just want that. I want the ones responsible for this and all the rest of the shit I've had to deal with to pay as well," Ghost growled, nodding to the unconscious Wasp. "If you can get me Ant-Man along with his little bitch, then you've got me."

"Then it would seem we have an accord," Zemo grinned from behind his hood as he held out his hand. When Ghost accepted the handshake, Zemo made it final by saying, "Welcome to the Masters of Evil, my dear." He then looked to Night Hunter and asked, "And what of your own efforts, Night Hunter? Is everything ready for the Keyblade wielder?"

"Naturally," Night Hunter confirmed with an arrogant huff. "Sora will be kept well out of the way when we make our move on the other Avengers. And if by some miracle he does survive, not only will it already be too late for him to do anything, but he'll be too tired to even try, with or without the help of his little spider friends."

"Excellent," Zemo nodded in acceptance. He then nodded to the unconscious Yuffie, silently commanding someone to grab her, before he stated, "Then let's move on to the next phase, shall we?"

Without another word, the other villains soon followed the masked daemon down the alley way, with Ghost scooping Yuffie up over her shoulder as she joined them. Right before they reached the end of the alleyway, Enchantress opened a portal that would take them right to their destination without anyone knowing until it was too late, and she was about to follow along when Night Hunter suddenly stopped her. "You know that Zemo's little scheme is going to fail, right," the swordsman questioned.

Enchantress just hummed in amusement before she confirmed, "Of course it will, but it matters little, my boy. This will merely let Thor and his mortal friends know that there is something out there that can match them, while also allowing us a few other opportunities."

Night Hunter said nothing in response, but instead just nodded and followed the other Masters of Evil to the portal. Despite that though, Enchantress knew that he was likely sporting a smirk underneath that helmet of his that was similar to hers, since he was just as much aware of what was really at work here as she was, and like her, he could not wait to see the looks on these mortals' faces when they finally realize the truth of their intentions for this world and all the others.

* * *

A few hours had now passed since he and the others had left Midtown, and there was still no sign of even a single, small Heartless, much to Sora's dismay. Sure, he probably should be glad that those monsters were nowhere to be find, but the less he saw of them, the more worried he got. Like he had said earlier, there was just something about their lack of activity that made him worried. That was not to say that he was just looking for Heartless during this patrol flight, because there were a few times when he stopped to drop down and help bring down more than a few criminals as well. These stops allowed him to better meet up with Peter and Gwen in person, since they would often be stepping in to deal with the same criminals when he arrived, and even allowed them to run into Yuri once, giving them the chance to congratulate her on her promotion, but aside from that one happy occurrence, the only news that Sora received from his friends was how they had not found any sign of the Heartless either.

The sun was now setting over the city, and since it was getting late, Sora knew that they were going to have to call it a night. Gwen's dad may know about her and Peter's secret identities, but Peter's aunt did not, and May Parker always wanted her nephew to be home by ten, or call if he was going to be late. Since the only criminals that were out that night seemed to be the usual variety, Peter really had no excuse to not be home by said curfew, and Sora felt that it would probably be better if his other friends called it a night at the same time as well, even if he was going to stay out a little later just to be absolutely certain. Still, just because it was sunset, it did not mean that they were going to have to call it quits in the next few minutes. They just had a little less time to really patrol together, and Sora did not want to waste that time.

"Miles, have you got anything," Sora questioned after tapping his helmet to activate its built-in communicator.

 _"Sorry, Sora. No dice aside from the usual chatter,"_ Miles reported from the other end, with the sounds of his fingers tapping against his keyboard being faintly heard in the background. _"I'm starting to think that tonight might be a dud for Heartless hunting."_

 _"Let's give it a few more hours before we call it that, Miles. You never know when something might change,"_ Peter advised. A moment later, he added, _"Though with my luck, they'll probably show right when I'm about to book it home so that I can make my curfew."_

 _"Yeah, that would be something that would happen to you,"_ Gwen teased as the others could hear the tell-tale sounds of wind to indicate that she was in mid-swing during her search of Upper East Side. _"All's quiet over here though. How about with you, Spider-Man? What's the story over in Hell's Kitchen?"_

 _"About the same,"_ Peter replied. _"There does seem to be a more few guys running around and causing trouble while speaking in Mandarin, but aside from that, I've got nothing."_

Sora let out a tired sigh at hearing that news, and was about to give his own report, when Miles cut in. _"Hang on guys! I think we might have something."_ The three heroes all went silent as they waited for their guy in the chair to add on to his report, and Miles did not disappoint. _"Yep! Someone just called in a sighting of strange, shadow-looking monsters running rampant over in Lower Manhattan. Sound promising to anyone else?"_

 _"It does to me,"_ Spider-Man stated. _"I'm heading over there now, assuming you've got a more precise location. Lower Manhattan isn't exactly a small area."_

 _"Give me a minute…The nearest I can narrow it down to would be somewhere between the lower edge of Tribeca and Battery Park."_

 _"Still a lot of ground to cover, even for three heroes,"_ Gwen pointed out, sounding very concerned as she spoke.

"But it's a lot better than searching all of Lower Manhattan, so I'll take it. Meet you guys there," Sora reported, turning his Keyblade Glider in the right direction, and rocketing over there with a blast of its engine.

It did not take long for Spider-Man and Spider-Woman to rendezvous with Sora, and the three were all quickly making their way to the area that Miles had specified. When they got there though, they quickly landed on a rooftop just at the lower edge of Tribeca, and froze a little at what they saw down below. Even the sound of Miles's voice coming over their comms did little to shake them out of their states of apprehension. _"Uh guys…That one call I mentioned earlier? It's just become several calls, all saying similar things about shadow monsters."_

"Yeah, and I think we can see why, Miles," Spider-Man worriedly reported.

There before the heroes, was the biggest swarm of Heartless that any of them had ever seen. It was so big, that one would probably think that this part of the city was flooded with the dark creatures, and people were definitely running scared in an attempt to get away from the monsters. There were Powerwilds and various other monkey-like Heartless scaling up the sides of buildings, Shadows, Neo-Shadows, Soldiers, Armored Knights, and many more ground-based Heartless running through the streets and alleys, Defenders, Bizarre Archers, and Bookmasters on the rooftops, and even the skies were infested with Heartless, namely ones like Air Soldiers, Air Pirates, Wizards, and Search Ghosts. The sight of so many Heartless would have made anyone pause for a moment at the sight, especially when it looked like their numbers kept growing with each passing second, and Sora, Peter, and Gwen were certainly no exception.

"Anyone else remember this being a lot easier and less intimidating on Spira," Gwen asked when she found her voice again.

"I guess you were right about the Heartless gearing up for something big, Sora. I just wish it wasn't…this," Peter gasped as he surveyed the area, already fishing his hand into his belt so that he could retrieve his phone and let his aunt know that he was either going to be home late or end up spending the night at Sora's. Hopefully May would not have too much of a problem with him spending the night at Avengers Mansion again.

As he looked out at the sight of all these Heartless before them, Sora found himself flashing back to that night on Destiny Islands, and while that did strengthen his determination to stop this madness before the Heartless grew any stronger, it also made him feel just as nervous. If the entire area was just as bad as this one little bit that they could see, then there was no telling how long it was going to take to deal them all, or even if the three of them could handle it. Either way, it was going to be a long night, and Sora could only think of one thing to say in order to voice that thought. "I think I'm going to need a bigger Keyblade."

* * *

Unaware of the Heartless invasion in the Lower Manhattan, the rest of the Avengers were hard at work with other matters. For Hawkeye, that meant bothering T'Challa while he was trying to do some work for Wakanda, at least in the opinion of some people, while a majority of the rest of the team was in the mansion. The only other person who was not at Avengers Mansion right now was Thor, as he had plans to spend time with a certain medic by the name of Jane Foster that night, so with Hulk occupied by whatever was on TV at the moment, Tony could not help but let out a small sigh of relief over the fact that he was finally allowed a moment's peace to work on some upgrades to his armors. Now the only problem was getting his trusty AI to help him get it all right.

"No, no, no. The suits have to be in an expandable array. Interchangeable, too, so I can have any suit at any time in seconds," Tony told JARVIS as he used a wrench to adjust a bolt on his current go-to armor.

 _"You only have three suits, sir,"_ JARVIS pointed out.

"Sure now, but what if…" Tony then paused for a minute as he asked, "Why are you arguing with me? Just reconfigure it."

JARVIS was about to carry out the order when he announced, _"Mansion update. Avenger ID: Wasp accepted. Avenger ID: Yuffie Kisaragi accepted."_

"Oh good," Tony sighed in relief. "Jan would want me to have more suits. Yuffie, too. Maybe you'll do what they say."

 _"Miss Van Dyne and Miss Kisaragi are not…are not…"_

Tony's eyes instantly widened with worry at the sound of the AI clearly malfunctioning for some reason, and if that was the case, then something was definitely wrong here. "JARVIS," Tony called out in worry, but the only response he received was a large metal fist that nearly took his head off as he rolled away.

Upon seeing Crimson Dynamo had found his way into the mansion's armory, Tony prepared to fire the repulsor he was already wearing as he started work on his armors, only to get knocked from a blow to his head that came from behind. Tony was then lifted up by Dynamo, and the large armored villain began to crush Stark's skull in his massive grasp until someone shouted out, "No Dynamo. Not yet."

That was the last thing Tony heard before he was thrown against the wall and fell unconscious.

* * *

Up in the lounge, Hulk was lying on a couch watching some TV as he munched on some peanuts, groaning in annoyance at the commercials that were currently playing like anyone else normally would when they were waiting for their show to come back on. At one point in the commercial though, the camera panned up to reveal a blonde that the Hulk had a very serious bone to pick with. "Hello again, monster," Enchantress mocked from the picture.

Hulk's response was to jump off the couch he was on and throw said couch at the television. The minute he was up, Hulk was suddenly wrapped in a strong hold by Abomination. Hulk was quick to free himself, but he was not fast enough to keep Abomination from slamming him through a portal that Enchantress had conjured up the minute she appeared in the room itself. When Hulk came to, he turned back to see that the portal was sealed shut behind him, and that he was somewhere that was raging with blizzards.

At that moment, a pair of large shadows fell over him, and Hulk turned to see massive ice monsters that he remembered Thor calling Frost Giants standing over him with weapons in hand. Seeing these two clearly wanted a fight, Hulk just roared loudly before he lunged at them, feeling the need to build up a sweat and work off a little anger before he found a way back to the mansion to deal with Enchantress.

* * *

Steve was a little disappointed when Yuffie did not show up for their run in the training room, but all the same, like any good soldier, he was not going to skip out on training just because his partner was a no-show. He just had to make a few adjustments to the program beforehand so that it was geared for just him as opposed to him and the young ninja. Part of him was actually glad that Tony had at least shown him how to work the controls of this piece of modern technology, but that did not mean he was going to be okay with the billionaire trying to get him to try wearing rocket boots or a suit of armor like the Iron Man's as opposed to his usual uniform and shield. Captain America did not need some fancy suit to do what he does best, and he was proving it too just from this run through the course he had set up. He was easily jumping over spike pits, deflecting missiles with his shield before destroying the launcher with said shield as he leapt over the last few, and then catching the vibranium disk after it bounced off the nearby wall, and he was doing it all in record time. To be honest, getting this workout in actually brought a relaxed smile to Steve's face, but his relaxing run seemed to come to a close when the lights in the room suddenly went out.

"Tony," Steve called out, wondering if there was some kind of problem or if Iron Man or one of the others was playing another joke on him as they sometimes would while he was training. This belief was soon proven false, as he narrowly avoided being chopped in half by the Executioner.

Captain America then leaped off the wall and slammed his shield into the bald Asgardian, but before he could move in for another strike, he was suddenly tackled by Simon, much to his surprise and shock. Before he could do anything, the captain ended up being shoved right through the wall behind them. Thankfully it only left him slightly disoriented, and Steve was on his feet again pretty soon, but unfortunately, he was not standing for long, as he was hit with a blast of dark fire, courtesy of none other than Night Hunter. A few more swings of his demonic-looking sword, and Night Hunter was easily able to subdue the hero of World War II.

Captain America was only able to hold onto a bit of consciousness long enough to see Zemo kneel down to where Steve could see him as the former Hydra leader told him smugly, "I told when we last met this wasn't over, Captain. Now it is."

The moment the captain fell unconscious, Enchantress walked into the room with the other villains, and asked, "What of Thor?"

"I haven't forgotten, Enchantress," Zemo assured his compatriot. "The Thunderer, the Keybearer, and Ant-Man remain."

"Actually, all that's left at this point would be the Asgardian and the pacifist scientist," Night Hunter corrected, only just noticing from the corner of his eye how Ghost's hands tightened into fists when he mentioned the latter. "Sora's currently dealing with a wave of Heartless unlike any that he's seen before, and last I checked, he's barely even made a dent in those numbers, even with the help of Spider-Man and Spider-Woman."

"Excellent. Then all is going as planned," Zemo declared. He then pulled out Wasp's ID card and activated its signaling device as he called out, "Avengers…assemble."

* * *

Lower Manhattan was in chaos, to put it mildly. Everyone was scrambling to get away from the Heartless that were attacking, and many people were not so lucky as to find a place to hide before the dark creatures had caught them. Even New York's finest were not safe from the wrath of the Heartless, as Captain Yuri Watanabe soon learned when she arrived on the scene just in time to see some of her officers being consumed by the Heartless and ultimately end up transformed into more of the horrible creatures. Luckily, it was not all bad, as the flash of lightning that just destroyed several airborne Heartless proved.

Sora was not holding anything back as he swept across the streets, skies, and roofs in an effort to take out each and every Heartless that he could. One minute he would be down on the street slashing away at several different Shadows and Neo-Shadows, before parrying the blades of the Armored Knights so that he could finish them off, the next minute he was leaping into the air and onto his Keyblade Glider so that he could cut through the Air Soldiers that were flying straight for unsuspecting civilians and police officers. Even the Heartless mounted on the sides of the buildings were not safe from his wrath, as he proved when he dismissed the Glider while in mid-air so that he could fire off a few different spells, and if the spell he used did not destroy that Heartless, it did knock it off the building long enough for him to finish off once he had landed on the ground again, assuming that either Spider-Man or Spider-Woman did not get there first. In fact, it was not just the wall-mounted Heartless that he was blasting into oblivion with magic, but several others as well, but especially the ones that he could not easily reach, which were usually the ones that were up on the roof or that were about to hurt someone he could not get to in time.

Given how often he was using his magic though, he was actually surprised that he had not had any problems with his spells since the fight began. Every time he attempted to cast a fire spell, that's what he got, each call for a lightning spell brought a rain of lightning bolts onto his targets, and every command for an icy blast granted him an ice spell. All of these came to him in quick succession to, and for a little while, Sora was starting to think that maybe he was getting better with magic at last. It certainly seemed like that was the case so far, but he still stuck to what he knew best and a few of the special attack moves like the Raid abilities he had recently learned, and his Sonic Blade ability as well whenever the opportunities arose.

Spider-Man and Spider-Woman were not just sitting around having tea, of course. They were taking just as much action as Sora was in this fight. Sure, they did not have a Keyblade, but as they had learned from their time on Spira, they did not necessarily need one to really take down the Heartless, nor did they really need to finish them off right away. More often than not, the two spider-heroes were wrapping up various Heartless with their webs, or pulling people to safety before the dark creatures could sink their claws into another victim, and when they did see a chance to try and finish one off, they took it. Knowing that the Heartless were not actually living creatures in the typical sense definitely helped too, because that meant that neither of them had to hold back out of fear of hurting their opponents, and so it was not surprising that the Heartless were having a much harder time keeping up with or even standing up against the two spiders than even some supervillains had.

As she was spinning through the air and webbing up various Air Soldiers, Air Pirates, and Wizards, Gwen noticed that a Large Body was heading straight for Yuri and some of her officers, and she quickly changed course so that she could pull them to safety. Shouting out a warning of her arrival to the men and women in blue, Gwen soon scooped Yuri and her officers up and over to safety before turning her webs on the massive, rotund Heartless, webbing its eyes shut and leaving it vulnerable to her retaliatory attack from behind. "You okay, Yuri," Spider-Woman asked.

"I'll live, I think," was the only reply that Yuri could give right now, given their current situation. "What the hell are these things, and why is it that none of my men's best guns can even scratch them?"

"They're called Heartless, and they're not easily injured by conventional means," Gwen explained as simply as she could. "As far as I know, the only things that are really able to hurt them aside from Sora's Keyblade would be anything that us superheroes can do."

"Surfs up," Spider-Man's voice called out before any of the police could protest her claims, and they all turned to see Spider-Man riding on the back of a Large Body, using his webs to steer the thing away from them and any nearby civilians, and right into its fellow Heartless. "You know, I'm actually a little surprised that you guys don't end up doing this on your own by accident more often, what with your large dispositions and how you basically just charge around without a care in the world like Rhino often does." Spidey then leapt off the Heartless so that it would be sent careening into another Large Body, destroying both in the process, and with a fluid grace that would leave professional gymnasts green with envy, landed next to Gwen, Yuri, and the other officers. "I gotta admit, I haven't had to put in this much work since Green Goblin's last attack on me."

"Tell me you've got some kind of plan beyond just hitting them all really hard, because we can't keep this up all night," Yuri almost begged.

"Hate to say it, Yuri, but right now, that is the only plan we've got. The Heartless aren't living creatures, at least not like you and us, but they're also not something that you and your men can fight. At best, you'd probably just end up getting in the way," Spider-Man shrugged in apology.

"Well you can't expect us to just sit here and do nothing," Yuri argued.

"I never said that," Spidey pointed out. "Look, Spider-Woman, Sora, and I need to focus on fighting them while keeping the collateral damage to as much of a minimum as possible, but we can't do that if we're too worried about bystanders getting hurt, and there are a lot of people still out on the streets and up in those buildings. What we need you to do is get people off the streets and down into either the subways or the basements. We'll also need men in those buildings to guide people to those same areas. Finally, we need to keep this contain, so have your men set up a perimeter from city hall and Battery Park."

"Any chance we can narrow it down a little more than that," Yuri questioned, knowing that was still a really big area left open for these creatures.

"Maybe if you can narrow it down by having that perimeter also run from the World Trade Center to Wall Street," Spider-Woman shrugged before she sprang into the air and began firing off several bursts of webs in different directions, ensnaring Heartless left, right, above, and below her by the time she landed.

Spider-Man aimed a web-shooter in a random direction, and then fired off a Trip-Wire Web that snagged another Armored Knight just as it was closing in on their position, and seeing that the two had things under control in terms of fighting the monsters, Yuri quickly turned to her officers to see to it that they carried out the two heroes' suggestions. "You heard the web-heads, now move it, people," the new NYPD captain ordered, and as her men began moving out, she relayed those same instructions into her radio so that she could spread the word to the rest of her force.

Gwen and Peter both nodded in approval of Yuri's quick response, glad that she was willing to take their suggestions before making any hasty decisions, but another blast of lightning quickly pulled their attention back onto the fight at hand, and they immediately swung over to where it came from. When they arrived, it was just in time to see Sora using Wind Raid to destroy several Heartless that were perched above him on either a rooftop or on the walls of surrounding buildings, and from what they could see, it looked like he was actually starting to break a sweat. Getting in closer, they could see that he was panting a little too, and they started to feel a little worried for their younger friend.

"Hey, you okay there, Hot-Shot," Gwen asked upon landing next to Sora.

"Yeah, I just need a minute to catch my breath," Sora panted in reply.

"Hate to break it to you, Sora, but I think you've only got thirty seconds," Spider-Man reasoned as he noticed how the Heartless seemed to start pouring in from all sides. "Hey, is it just me, or does it seem like they're all starting to come to us?"

"Well, I think Thor or one of my other friends did once mention that the Heartless are drawn to the Keyblade for some reason, but that may be all the better for us," Sora reasoned out. "If we can keep their attention focused on us, then they won't be too interested in going after anyone else."

"Yeah, that's great. I've always wanted to be bait for monsters that would eat my heart and turn me into one of them," Gwen sarcastically droned. "At least it can't get any worse."

Right after Gwen said that, a faint beeping suddenly came from Sora, and the wielder of Kingdom Key immediately reached into his pocket to pull out his Avengers ID card. "Please tell me that's your teammates calling to say that they're coming to help us," Spider-Man pleaded.

"I can if you want me to lie," Sora quipped in return, hating that he was going to have give his friends more bad news. "It's actually a distress call from the mansion. Looks like there might be something going on over there to that needs all the Avengers' attention, if not as many of us as possible."

"Guess that means we're on our own with this, right," Spider-Woman asked.

"…Yep, looks like it," Sora hesitantly confirmed before pocketing the ID card again. He probably hated that fact more than the other two though, as he was just seconds away from calling the others for help when the ID card went off. In retrospect though, he probably should have considered calling the others when they first saw this Heartless swarm, but he did not want to put anyone else at risk, thinking that he, Spider-Man, and Spider-Woman would have been enough to handle this. Clearly he did not think that through as well as he thought.

"Maybe not. I mean, it's not like the Avengers are the only ones you can call for backup, right," Spider-Man reminded him.

"I actually tried reaching out to Donald and Goofy a little while before you two got here. They're on some jungle world that's several days away from here right now following up on another clue to King Mickey's whereabouts. They'd never make it in time, so…" Sora revealed, trailing off at the end since he figured that it would be obvious where that ended.

Both spiders just sighed in response to that information before they hardened their resolves and assumed battle stances along either side of Sora. Before they made attack again, a massive Heartless suddenly dropped down in front of them, and it was a little too familiar to Sora and Peter. "Uh, didn't we already beat that Guard Armor thing back at Midtown," Spidey asked.

"Yep, but this one seems a little different from the one we fought with Sandman," Sora pointed out as he looked on at the newest arrival, scanning it with his helmet so he could better identify this Heartless.

"Considering that its using its hands as feet and its legs as arms now, while the torso has been flipped upside down, I'd certainly hope so," Spider-Woman pointed out.

"Got it! It's called the Opposite Armor, and it is similar to the Guard Armor, except its stronger, and possess a different set of attack patterns. Other than that, we might be able to take it down the same way we did the Guard Armor," Sora reported.

"That's great. We just have to worry about all of his little buddies attacking us and any civilians that Yuri and her people are likely trying to evacuate to safety, and not die or lose our hearts," Spider-Man pointed out. He then looked to his girlfriend and said, "Spider-Woman, for future reference, when you're a superhero, you should _never_ say that things can't get worse. It's an even bigger jinx for us than it is for normal people."

"Sure, _now_ you tell me," Gwen grumbled as the two boys rushed forward into battle once again, with her trailing behind them just seconds after.

* * *

While Thor was disappointed that he had to end his night with Jane Foster a little early, he could not ignore a call for help, especially when the call came from his friends, so it was only natural that he flew off to Avengers Mansion upon receiving the alert from his ID card. He was just glad that Jane was so understanding of the fact, unlike his father who did not seem to think that his time was well-spent defending Midgard. That was another problem for later though, as the Avengers were in need of his assistance, but when he arrived at the mansion, he was a little confused to find that everything seemed normal. Thinking that he would get a better understanding of why they were summoned here once he was inside, Thor quickly descended into his home away from home, and landed in the foyer. "Ho Avengers! Ho Computer! Thor has arrived," Thor called out once his feet hit the ground.

"Welcome Asgardian," a voice that was definitely not JARVIS's nor any of the Avengers' suddenly called out, and Thor spun to narrow his eyes upon the sight of the speaker walking down the stairs towards him.

"I know of thee," Thor snarled. "You are Captain America's foe, Zemo."

"You may call me master," Zemo chuckled in reply. "Now kneel before me."

"Are you mad mortal? Thor kneels before no one," Thor warned the masked man, but he had to blink as the other villains who had infiltrated the mansion suddenly appeared around him in a flash of light.

"As I said, kneel before your masters," Zemo commanded once more as Enchantress moved to stand by his side. Thor was not going to listen any more than he was the first time, and he immediately slammed his hammer into the ground as he unleashed a burst of lightning against Simon and Abomination and followed up by slamming the hammer into Crimson Dynamo.

Ghost and Night Hunter both moved to try and tackle the Asgardian, but Thor was surprisingly too quick for them, and easily deflected Night Hunter's sword before side-stepping both Ghost's first attack. Spinning around to slam Mjolnir into Ghost, Thor was surprised to see it pass right through her before she spun herself over to kick him as hard as she could. The blow made Thor stumble a little, but not to the point where he could not counter attack before the young woman could hit him again, and this time, his attack did not fail, as he simply blasted her with a bolt of lightning that did not seem to pass through her. The excess electricity from his attack also had the added bonus of preventing Night Hunter's next attack, and left Thor with an opening to carry on with his next move. Using that opportunity, Thor threw Mjolnir into Executioner's face, but the minute he redirected the hammer towards Zemo and Enchantress, the latter of the two used her magic to stop the weapon in its tracks and caused it to drop to the floor.

Seeing Thor caught off guard by the sight of his hammer being rendered useless, Crimson Dynamo instantly opened fire with a missile launcher in his arm which Executioner then followed up with a hard tackle into the Asgardian prince. Thor quickly flipped Executioner off of him and into Dynamo, but before he could do anymore, he was blasted into Abomination's powerful grip by Simon. As the gamma villain made sure that Thor was held completely still, Night Hunter raised a hand towards the Asgardian and unleashed a blast of dark fire into Thor. As a result of being struck at point-blank, Thor instantly lost consciousness and fell to the ground the moment that Abomination released his hold on the Thunderer. With the Asgardian now defeated, Executioner easily scooped up Thor so that he could transport him to where the Masters were holding the other heroes that they had already defeated.

The entire time this was happening, none of the villains knew that Hawkeye and Black Panther were outside watching through the sky light from a nearby rooftop as the Masters of Evil dealt with Thor, and seeing one of their biggest guns get taken down so easily had definitely left one of them feeling more than a little worried. "Well, that's not good," Hawkeye commented upon seeing Thor being carried off. "All right, we call in SHIELD, go in with the Hulkbuster gear, and…"

"And destroy the city in the ensuing battle, as well as seal the fates of our captive teammates," Black Panther interrupted.

"Well what do you recommend," Hawkeye asked half-sarcastically.

T'Challa looked down to his left for a minute, almost as if he were checking on something else before he said, "Indeed. It is up to us. Let us just hope that Sora will be able to join us soon."

"Yeah…I don't think that's going to happen any time soon," Clint informed him as he pulled out his smart phone, which was already playing a live newsfeed showing the ongoing battle that Sora, Spider-Man, and Spider-Woman were fighting against the Heartless. "Something tells me he's got more than enough problems on his plate already."

"Then we will have to hope we can handle this without him for the moment," T'Challa reasoned, and with that, the two moved in to try and help their teammates. Though a part of them did hope that they could stop this home invasion before Sora arrived, they were also praying that Sora would be able to come and help them sometime soon as well, or at the very least, that he would be able to deal with his current problem without them for the moment.

* * *

Down in the Assembly Hall, Steve was suddenly awoken by a sudden splash of water on his face, and what he saw when he awoke was Zemo standing over him with Abomination nearby, and Night Hunter just a short distance away from both of them. "Welcome back, Captain," Zemo greeted as he tossed aside the empty glass that had held the water he had just splashed on Captain America's face.

The captain then looked to see Iron Man and Wasp both tied to chairs on either side of him, and Thor tied down to the table in the assembly hall, all bound by Enchantress's magic. Steve then looked Zemo dead in the eye as he said, "You've got me Zemo. Let the others go. There's no need to involve anyone else."

Zemo just laughed in reply as he informed the veteran of World War II, "Ah, but the Avengers are already spoken for, Captain. You're new friends have made powerful enemies."

"What do you want? The war is over. After all these years, is revenge on me really that important to you," Captain America demanded.

"Yes," Zemo confirmed. "But now, Captain, I've been promised the world, and you will live just long enough to see me have it."

Captain America did not like the sound of that, especially given what he and the others knew about Night Hunter and his connection to the Heartless. Then again, it was also likely that Zemo did not truly understand the kind of devastation that the Heartless could bring about, but he doubted that Zemo would have cared either way if it allowed him to achieve what he wanted. Of course, there was also a chance that Enchantress had made that promise to Zemo, given what the others had told him about her, and she could very well deliver on it as well, assuming she kept her word. Either way, Steve knew that he and the others had to figure out some way to get out of this before anyone else got hurt. He just had to hope that his teammates that were still free were able to find a way to circumvent any traps that Zemo and his new allies had set for them, because at the moment, they seemed like the Avengers' best hope.

* * *

Fighting the Opposite Armor proved to be harder than the fight against the Guard Armor, but Sora chalked that up to the fact that Sandman was not there to help, along with how they had already been fighting an army of Heartless both before and after the Heartless Boss had shown up. Not only was the Opposite Armor proving to be more flexible than its previous incarnation, but it also showed that its torso could be used to attack in a way other than just spinning around while slashing viciously like some kind of oversized top. The number times that it fired an energy blast from its base alone was enough to make the three heroes defending Lower Manhattan sweat, but the damage those blasts caused were a much greater call for concern. Various different cars went up in smoke, while buildings had new, gaping holes in them that were not there before as a result of that particular attack, and Sora, Peter, and Gwen all knew that if they were hit by one of those blasts, they would not be very likely to survive.

Thankfully, the strategy that Spider-Man and Sora used to defeat the Guard Armor was still applicable in that fight, with the only change being that they had to be a lot more careful in avoiding the Opposite Armor's attacks, and when you add in the fact that Sora now had a few new tricks and spells to use against this new foe, it was little surprise that the three were able to take it out soon enough. All that they had left to worry about at that point was the remaining Heartless that were running about this area of the city. Not a small task even with the number that they had managed to eliminate while fighting the Opposite Armor, and from what Spider-Man and Spider-Woman could tell, it was going to be even harder for Sora, because he was not looking too good.

By the time they had finished the fight against the Opposite Armor, Sora looked so exhausted that some would consider it surprising that he could still stand, let alone fight, and from what Peter and Gwen could tell, it looked like he was having a much harder time casting any magic at all. Sure, he could still fight like normal, but there was a very noticeable lack of fire, ice, and lightning in the area now. They figured Sora could use his healing spell to give himself an extra boost, but that turned out to have the opposite effect. The spell did heal any of their battle injuries, but it seemed to make Sora even more tired than before. Thankfully it did not make him drop down in the street, but at that point, they all felt that it might be best if Sora refrained from using any more magic until he was a little more rested, or they figured out what was wrong with those abilities now.

Sora did not argue, because he definitely felt like using any magic other than his ability to call out the Keyblade Glider would just drain him of his energy even faster, and he proved that he still had enough strength for that ability quickly enough by summoning the flying motorcycle in order to reach a rooftop that several Heartless were perched on top of just minutes after the group's healing session. He managed to take out all the Heartless on that roof, and easily dealt with the ones on the next few roofs over before dropping back down to the street again to survey the area for anymore of the creatures on the ground. His observations were barely even halfway completed though when some Armored Knights materialized behind him, and raised their swords to attack the Keybearer from behind. Unfortunately for him, Sora never even registered that there was something there, until Spider-Man had swung by and caught a glimpse of the sneaky knights.

"SORA, BEHIND YOU," Spider-Man shouted as loud as he could as he used his webs to pull himself over to and take out some Air Knights, but it seemed like his warning came a little too late, as the Armored Knights were already beginning to attack when Sora turned around.

The attacking Heartless ended up failing to hit their mark though, because at the last second, something dropped down from above, and swiftly slashed through all three Armored Knights in a single attack. When the smoke and crystal hearts that always seemed to follow a Heartless's destruction cleared, Sora finally got a good look at his rescuer, and ended up grinning wider than he ever had since coming to this world upon seeing who this person was. Not that it was too surprising, considering Sora would know this guy anywhere.

"There you are! What's going on," the taller, silver haired boy greeted Sora as he waved his own red and black, key-shaped sword.

* * *

It was a valiant effort, you would have to give them that, but ultimately, it seemed that Hawkeye and Black Panther's attempt to save the other Avengers had ended in failure. Sure, they were able to get the drop on the Masters of Evil, since it seemed that Zemo was unaware that there were more Avengers still free besides Ant-Man and Sora, but even with the element of surprise on their side, T'Challa and Clint were only able to do so much for their teammates before they too were defeated. Seeing two more of his teammates being taken down had prompted Steve to start struggling even harder against his magic restraints, while Tony could only question why Hawkeye did not call in SHIELD for a little backup, much to Clint's ire. Zemo on the other hand just found it all the more amusing that these two really seemed to believe that they could best his new team, and as such was taking his time in finishing off the last two Avengers.

"You choose, Captain," Zemo then told Steve as held Hawkeye and Black Panther at sword-point, forcing them both to stand. "Which of your teammates will be the first to taste my blade?"

"You know what Zemo, I want to go first. I'm tired of listening to you," Hawkeye suddenly volunteered.

"Amusing," Zemo replied. "Did you really believe the two of you could defeat all of us?"

"Weird," Hawkeye then quipped. "Purple Puss here thinks we were trying to defeat him."

"I heard," T'Challa quipped back in reply. "He is misguided. We were not trying to defeat your team, Baron. We were simply allowing Ant-Man uninterrupted access to his lab."

"Yeah, we picked him up from the Wakandan Embassy while you tools were starting your little siege here," Hawkeye then smirked with pride. "He just needed to get a few things."

Zemo immediately turned around to find Ant-Man himself standing in the entrance to the Assembly Hall, armed with a rifle of some kind and not looking like he was certain that he would be able to win no matter what happened. "Surrender, Zemo," Hank warned the villain as he raised the gun-like device. "End this before anyone gets hurt."

The villains all looked between themselves for a minute, hardly believing that what they believed to be one of the weakest members of the Avengers had actually just said that to them. Night Hunter even took it a step further and let out a mocking chuckle as he asked, "What're you going to do if we don't? Send some of your bugs after us?"

"You'd be surprised just how much a few little ants can do, kid," Hank quipped in return.

At that point, Wasp had finally woken up, and when she saw her boyfriend standing before all the villains, she immediately panicked. Not that you could blame her after what had happened the last time he went up against Enchantress and Executioner alone. "Hank? Are you crazy," Janet asked in fear. "Run!"

"You should really take your partner's advice, Doctor Pym. You stand very little chance even with a few extra toys," Zemo advised, and he signaled for his allies to attack, prompting Wonder Man to charge forward in an attempt to take down the size-changer.

"Sorry, Simon," Hank said as he made a few final adjustments to his device, and once it was ready, he fired it off. When the blaster was fired at Wonder Man, Simon was struck with an odd energy beam that seemed to be tearing him apart as he cried out in pain until he was completely dispersed into thin air. With the first Master dealt with, Hank prepared to shrink down, but he suddenly stopped short when he felt something suddenly seemed to run painfully through his chest. "Wh-what's…happening…?" Hank barely gasped as Ghost suddenly appeared before him with her hand running through his chest, having been standing watch for the perfect time to strike while invisible.

"You're getting what you deserve, Pym," Ghost snarled. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this moment. The moment when you pay for your crimes against my family."

"What're you…talking about," Ant-Man gasped, only to release a pained cry as he dropped to his knees, the pain in his chest amplifying.

"Don't act like you don't know! All I have to do is solidify my hand while its inside of you, and you're dead," Ghost growled in warning. "Of course, that would be too easy, and I want you to suffer like I had after what you did to my parents, Elihas and Catherine Starr."

Hearing those names made something click in Hank's mind, and his eyes instantly widened behind his helmet as he realized who this final Master of Evil was. "Ava," Hank gasped. "Ava Starr?"

His exclamation earned him a hard punch from Ghost, as she practically shouted, "Not anymore! You and your little bitch did this to me, Hank Pym! Ava Starr is dead, just like her parents, because of you! Now, all that's left is me, the Ghost."

Hank wanted to protest those claims, having realized what the young woman was going on about. He wanted to deny that any of this was true, despite the clear evidence before him, and more than that, he wanted to plead with Ava's better side, but he could not do any of those things. Part of the reason was because of how Ava had her hand in his chest, and the other part of the reason was because someone managed to come in and pull Ava out of him with an easily landed web-line. "So wait a minute. If you're a ghost, then shouldn't you be haunting an old castle or some abandoned house or something? Or even just running around trying to scare a group of kids and their talking dog? Or am I just really behind the times on how ghost stuff works?"

"Spider-Man," a good number of the Avengers gasped in shock along with some of the Masters of Evil.

"And Spider-Woman," the web-head quipped as he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.

That served as the superheroine's cue to leap in from the destroyed entrance of the Assembly Hall and begin throwing out several webs at any villain that she could. Some of her webs served to blind Executioner and Abomination, while others tied up Ghost, and caused Zemo's feet to be stuck to the ground. Another other webs were blocked by Enchantress's magic, leaving her completely untouched by them, while Crimson Dynamo merely found them in spots on his armor that were inconsequential. "I know that I'm still new to the scene and all, but that doesn't mean you should act like I'm not here just because Spider-Man is," the hooded heroine joked.

"Last minute reinforcements will not save you, Avenger. These children will merely share your fate," Zemo promised as he used his sword to cut himself free of the webs.

"Not while we have anything to say about it, Zemo," another new voice echoed through the air, and the group all turned just in time to see that Sora had arrived on the scene in a flash of light. "After all, we've got you more than a little outnumbered."

The Masters of Evil were all amazed to see the Keybearer before them, because from their understanding, he was not supposed to show up at all, and even if he did, he should have been way too tired to use any magic, never mind a teleportation spell. No one was more infuriated by how little sense this made than Night Hunter, as he proved when he suddenly surged forward with his sword ready to cut Sora in half with an angry roar. Much to his surprise, his sword was intercepted by another person's blade, and it was only then that he realized that Sora was not just referring to himself, Spider-Man, and Spider-Woman when he had said "we" a moment ago.

This newcomer was someone that none of the Masters of Evil had seen before, while the Avengers had only seen him in the few pictures that Sora had on him from his homeworld. The most defining characteristic about this boy would have to have been his silver hair that just barely stopped short of being shoulder-length, while his attire consisted of a yellow-and-black tank top with white-trimmed, black straps crisscrossing his chest and upper back, grey-trimmed black gloves with matching wrist bands, dark blue pants with brighter blue baggy pant legs that were connected white-studded suspenders hanging off of his black belt and buckled with small black straps on his ankles, and white and blue shoes with white-trimmed black straps as opposed to shoe-laces. The most surprising thing about him was that the weapon with which he was using to hold back Night Hunter's sword appeared to be a black and red Keyblade, with the teeth of said blade forming the outline of a heart, but from the way he was grinning to the taller boy, it seemed that Sora did not care about that. He was just glad to have his best friend fighting by his side again after all this time.

"Hi, I'm Riku, and I hear you and your pals have been giving my best friend a tough time lately," the older Destiny Islander smirked in greeting before he pushed Night Hunter back and kicked him away with a hard spin kick.

Seeing this new, unexpected factor come into play made Zemo forget all about thinking strategically, and instead, he went right for a more basic approach. "Tear. Them. Apart!"

While Night Hunter and most of the other Masters had instantly turned their focus onto Sora, Riku, Spider-Man, and Spider-Woman, Ant-Man managed to regain his bearings and quickly shrank down before racing across the room towards Abomination, dodging every form of weapons fire and attack that was now flying flooding the room. When Abomination finally took notice of the shrunken scientist, he merely smirked at what he thought would be an easy win, and turned his full attention to Hank. "Come on, bug," Blonsky challenged, but his attitude quickly changed when he saw Ant-Man start growing back to normal size, and then beyond that. "What're you…" Anything more that Abomination had to ask was immediately lost when Giant-Man kicked him out of the room, right through the wall.

Realizing his teammate had just been kicked out of the room like a football, Crimson Dynamo turned his weapons on Giant-Man, but even though he got off a few good hits on Hank, it made little difference in protecting himself from the barrage of blasts that were fired from Black Panther's vibranium daggers. While Panther continued his onslaught of attacks, Hawkeye tried to free Thor from where he had been tied down on the Assembly Hall's table. Enchantress quickly realized this and instantly sent out an energy blast at both the archer and the Wakandan, forcing them to dodge to either side. Sora had realized this in an instant, and quickly broke off his attack on Ghost and Night Hunter, leaving Riku and the two spiders to handle the villains so that he could try and use his Keyblade to free the other Avengers, but Night Hunter managed to quickly teleport away from Riku's next attack and got in a sneak attack from behind Sora. Luckily Sora seemed to have anticipated that move, because he easily jumped clear before Night Hunter's attack hit, and used Kingdom Key to slice through Yuffie's magic restraints, freeing the ninja girl at last.

Yuffie immediately jumped out of her seat, and upon tackling Ghost away from Spider-Woman, she growled, "Payback time for that cheap shot of yours, bitch."

"Try it, brat," Ghost snarled in return before she vanished from sight, and apparently through the floor, since Yuffie fell to it a minute later. Yuffie was on her feet again soon enough, looking this way and that for the phasing woman, but she was unable to locate Ghost before Ava hit her from behind, while still invisible. When she tried to retaliate, Yuffie only hit air, and ended up getting hit again from the other side.

"Urgh! I wish I had a smoke bomb or two right now," Yuffie grumbled, since the Masters had taken away all of her ninja tools when they tied her up, while leaving her signature weapon back in the alley where they ambushed her.

"You mean like these," Riku asked as he tossed her pouch of weapons over to her. He then quickly somersaulted away from a blast from the rematerialized Wonder Man and ran over to Yuffie, presenting her with her large shuriken once he was next to her and said, "I get the feeling this is yours too, right?"

"Yeah. Thanks," Yuffie nodded in response, glad to have her weapon back again. She then tossed a smoke bomb down, with the aid of the resulting smokescreen, she managed to locate Ghost and hit her with a hard kick to the side, forcing Ava to become visible once more. "Not so tough when someone can actually find you, huh?"

Meanwhile, Sora efforts to free the other Avengers were all blocked off by Night Hunter, and when he realized that he would have to take action to do so, Hawkeye immediately ran to retrieve his bow, and strung an arrow the minute it was in his hand. One simple shot later, and Hawkeye had managed to blast Enchantress off her feet, knocking her out just long enough for her spell holding the rest of the team to be canceled out, allowing the rest of the Avengers to join the battle at last in whatever way they could. While Wasp and Cap moved to engage the enemy, Tony made it a point to instruct JARVIS to send him a suit while he ran for cover until the armor arrived.

As the AI prepped the requested armor, Amora had came around just in time to see Mjolnir return to Thor's hand as he stood over her, and he did not look happy at all. "Thor, you would not harm me, would you," Enchantress nervously asked with a disarming smile, hoping that she would be able to play to Thor's consistent weakness to her whims.

"Nay," Thor replied, making the blonde think her charms had worked until he suddenly spun his hammer over his head and opened a portal that allowed a snow-covered, angry Hulk to step back into the mansion. "But my friend might."

Amora quickly realized this was true when Hulk's glare found her, and he let out a loud roar of anger before charging, and she immediately did the one thing she always did when she was in peril. "Executioner, I need you," Enchantress commanded in a panic, and like the obedient dog he was, Skurge came to his lady's aid, by tackling Hulk aside, engaging the gamma giant in battle once more.

While that was going on, Hawkeye was doing his best to stay clear of Zemo's sword swipes, until finally he gave Captain America just the opening he needed to lunge forward and tackle Zemo, grabbing his shield which Zemo was currently wearing on his arm like a trophy when they both landed. "I'd like my shield back now. It needs to be cleaned," Steve informed his old enemy before he yanked the iconic shield off of Zemo and back onto his own arm.

Over where he and Sora were currently fighting Night Hunter, Riku could not help but catch glimpses of Captain America as he continued to engage Zemo, feeling very impressed with the super soldier's skills. It was not just Cap he was taking notice of though, as every other hero was grabbing his attention as well, given how Wasp was flittering about and firing her stingers to disorient Crimson Dynamo so that Black Panther could better attack his weak points, Yuffie was now engaging Ghost alongside of Hawkeye in a no-holds-barred hand-to-hand struggle, and Hulk and Thor were battling it out with the Asgardian's old enemies. Even Spider-Man and Spider-Woman were getting in a fair amount of action as they swung about the room and did whatever they could to lend a hand, or a few webs, and as Riku noted all of this, he could not help but look to his best friend and say, "You've got some really strange friends, Sora."

"You would know all about being a strange friend, Riku," Sora joked in return as he parried another attack from Night Hunter, drawing a short laugh from his older friend as they quickly engaged Night Hunter once more, showing him just why the two of them were Destiny Islands' most undefeatable tag-team.

As the two best friends continued to chat and engage Night Hunter, Wonder Man finally reformed again, and quickly increased his size to match that of Hank's Giant-Man form, just as the size-changer was preparing to use said form to attack. The minute they were at matching sizes, Wonder Man tackled Giant-Man into the wall, and the two began grappling with each other as best as they could without accidentally stepping on someone. "Simon, I'm glad to see you up and about, but what are you doing with these people," Hank questioned. "You're a good man; you don't want any part of this."

"I don't have any choice," Simon admitted. "They're the only reason I'm even alive, and if I want to stay alive, I do what they say, much like Ghost."

Hank was about to ask what Simon meant by that, but he never got the chance, as Simon was already pulling back to punch him again. Thankfully, Wonder Man's attack never came, as a repulsor blast ran across his fist, making him turn to see Iron Man barreling into the room, geared up in his Mark VII armor. Giant-Man immediately shrunk down to give Iron Man the opening he needed, and Tony did not hesitate to take it as he blasted Wonder Man back over to the rest of the villains. Seeing the villains all gathered up, Iron Man quickly landed as the Avengers did the same on the other side of the room, along with Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, and Riku. The armored Avenger's next orders were very simple and even easier to agree with. "All right, team, I want this scum out of my house right now."

Hearing that made Riku turn between the armored hero and his best friend before he asked, "Wait, this is his house?" When Sora just nodded in response, Riku grinned a little more as he said, "I think I might be starting to officially like these guys."

"I figured you would," Sora grinned in response, and the two then joined the rest of the Avengers in charging forward so that they could engage the villains.

"Destroy them all," Zemo hollered as the Masters of Evil met the heroes' charge with their own, and just like that, the battle had erupted anew, but this time, with the Avengers not only at full strength, but also outnumbering the Masters thirteen to seven.

Eventually, the battles had spread to encompass the entirety of the sublevels as Iron Man and Thor battled it out with Wonder Man in the Quinjet hangar, resulting in Simon getting bashed into the pool of water below them, while Crimson Dynamo worked to blast Black Panther in Iron Man's armory, only for the Wakandan king to evade every single shot that was fired. Eventually, Wasp found her way into the armored Russian's helmet through the crack that T'Challa had made earlier, with stingers charged, and she admitted, "This is gonna hurt, and I won't lie to you, I'm kinda glad."

The second she said that, Janet blasted Dynamo right in the head with her stingers as charged up to almost maximum, and when the blast struck, Dynamo could only grunt in pain before he dropped to the ground like a heavy, dead weight, much to Wasp's satisfaction. She did not like being the first Avenger to be ambushed by these creeps, or how she ended up being used as a hostage so that they could capture Yuffie. Meanwhile, Hawkeye and Giant-Man were facing off with Executioner in the training room, and while neither of them were in the same weight-class as Skurge, that did not stop them from delivering a very easy defeat to the Asgardian axe-wielder. Even though he would not admit it, Hank did get a bit of satisfaction from flattening Executioner like a bug under his hand, but it was understandable since the guy had blasted him in the face with a fireball the last time they met. They were not the only ones fighting in that area though, as Yuffie and Spider-Woman were hard at work trading blows with Ghost in the hallway just outside.

Ghost was proving to not be an easy opponent for the two girls, but they were not giving her many chances either, as Gwen was able to pick up on when Ava was going to attack, even while she was invisible thanks to her Spider-Sense. Sure, she had to blindfold herself with her webs so that she could better listen to the sixth senses, a tactic that Peter had told her he had once used against Mysterio, but it was not like she could really rely on her eyes to know when Ghost was going to attack for the most part. Plus, Yuffie was not complaining about having someone with a sixth sense for danger backing her up, and it also made it easier for her to have a quick chat about what she considered a very important matter.

"So where were you guys all this time? Not having a pizza while playing catch up with Sora's buddy, I hope," Yuffie asked as she tossed some small shuriken at Ghost, only mentally curse as the weapons passed right through Ava.

When Ghost attempted to counter attack, Spider-Woman jumped in and landed a hard kick to the phasing villainess's torso, before answering Yuffie's question. "No, we weren't. To be honest, we only just ran into Riku after fighting a massive army of Heartless that spanned across a fraction of Lower Manhattan, including a big boss one."

"No way," Yuffie gasped in shock. "You fought an army that big and didn't think to call the rest of us?!"

"Well don't look at me. It was Sora's idea. He figured that it would be better to keep you guys out of this for your own safety or something," Spider-Woman shrugged. She then noticed that Ghost had drawn her pistol and was now firing on them, thanks to her Spider-Sense, and she immediately jumped to the side to avoid getting hit, letting Yuffie toss her large shuriken at Ava.

The weapon passed through Ghost, but then she ended up becoming solid again a little too soon, as Yuffie was not aiming to hit Ava with the weapon. She just needed to make an opening for when she rushed in and punched Ghost in the face as hard as she could. "We'll have to have a talk with him about that later."

"Agreed. I do not want to go through that again without serious backup," Gwen nodded in response.

Back in the Assembly Hall, Zemo found himself battling Captain America once more, but this time, the captain had the assistance of Spider-Man. Zemo would not lie and say that he had always believed the friendly neighborhood hero of New York to be nothing more than a child beneath his notice, but as he continued to fight, he was starting to see that he had underestimated him, as Spidey proved to be a very capable combatant. He was rough around the edges, to be sure, clearly self-taught, but combined with his impressive array of web gadgets and the super soldier's skills, Spider-Man was definitely proving to be a force to be reckoned with. Zemo could not help but take notes of this for in case he ever encountered the wall-crawler again in the future, and as a result of his mental note-taking, he could not stop the web-swinger from pulling sword away from him until it was too late.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you not to play with sharp objects," Spider-Man quipped after webbing Zemo's blade to the floor.

"I get the feeling his parents didn't teach him a lot of things," Captain America commented in a rare moment of jest.

Zemo's temper flared a little more at the mockery, and as a result, he had immediately drawn his dagger so that he could attack the two in a blind rage, much like the one that Night Hunter was in as he crossed blades with Riku and Sora. "How?! How is it that a pair of nobodies have something that should rightfully be mine," Night Hunter demanded as he swung wildly at Riku and Sora both.

"Guess you haven't heard. The Keyblade chooses its wielder, not the other way around," Sora quipped as he parried another sword strike from Night Hunter before forcing him back with a quick blast of fire. He was still feeling pretty exhausted from earlier, but the trip back to the mansion seemed to be plenty of time for him to recover at least a little bit. Not enough to rapidly cast spells like he had been earlier, but just enough for when it mattered most.

"And from what I can see, it doesn't look like any Keyblade would choose you," Riku finished for his friend as he took the opening Sora gave him to lunge forward and pin Night Hunter's blade down long enough for him to punch the helmeted villain in the face and then elbowing him right after.

Night Hunter just snarled at the two, but then took notice of how Amora was struggling to stay ahead of Hulk as he rampaged across the labs in an attempt to smash her, and when he turned again to see Captain America and Spider-Man knock Zemo halfway across the room, he came to only one conclusion. "We're not winning this one, Zemo. It's time to go."

Zemo glared at the boy for thinking he could give him orders, but it was not like he could argue with the brat with a distorted voice. Realizing this, Zemo looked to the blonde Asgardian and shouted, "Enchantress, we are leaving!"

The minute the villains' leader had shouted that, Enchantress immediately summoned as much of her remaining magical power as she needed and teleported every one of the Masters of Evil out of the mansion to safety, some just as they were about to be dealt a finishing blow by their opponents, such as herself. Before he vanished, Night Hunter glared at Sora and Riku through his mask, and promised, "Next time, Keybearers."

Upon seeing that they had driven the villains out of the Avengers' home, Spider-Man just had to joke, "And stay out!"

* * *

The following early morning, everyone was gathered together in the lounge, resting and recovering from the fight with the Masters of Evil. They had all suffered more than their fair share of bumps and bruises, as Wasp could attest to as she held an icepack to her black eye, while Yuffie kept one of the back of her head where Ghost had hit her, but none of them were any worse for wear. Thankfully if anyone had been hurt more than that, Sora was now able to heal them all up quite well, but they were still a bit concerned about why his rapid use of magic the previous night had caused him to end up so tired in the first place. Add in the fact that he had fought an army of Heartless with only Spider-Man and Spider-Woman as his backup, and the Avengers did not hesitate to chew him out a little, some more so than others, namely Janet, Hank, Steve, and Tony. They did appreciate that he only did it because he wanted to avoid any of them getting hurt by the dark creatures, but they still had to point out that they had signed up for that type of thing the minute they became superheroes and a team.

On the bright side though, they were glad to see that Sora had finally found one of his missing best friends, and that said friend was apparently a Keyblade wielder as well. Riku admitted that he did not know as much magic as Sora seemed to though, but that did not seem to matter all that much to Sora. He was just glad to have his best friend back with him, and he was not the only one who was glad to see someone had returned to their side at last. "So, when did you get back from Wakanda," Janet asked Hank as she turned to him, seeing that he looked pretty down ever since the fight had ended.

Hank did not seem to say anything in reply to her, and Janet had a very good idea what was bothering him. Before she could ask about it though, Hawkeye had dropped down on the sofa next to her with a groan, and said, "You know, I'm not so sure I want to be part of a team I have to rescue every week."

"Perhaps they will elect you team leader now," T'Challa joked, but it seemed that it went right over Barton's head.

"Really? You think," Hawkeye asked excitedly.

"No way! I don't know if it escaped your notice, but if anyone saved this team last night, it was Sora and your friendly neighborhood spider-heroes over here," Peter disputed.

"He's right, you know. You guys would've been toast without us," Sora agreed with a smile while resting his hands behind his head.

Before anyone could argue with the two boys, seriously or otherwise, Tony finally interrupted, having finally had enough about the big questions that had been bugging him since the whole thing started. "Okay, stop. Everyone stop! Does anyone know what that was all about?"

"Our enemies wish vengeance upon us," Thor then stated, almost as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Defeat does not sit well with some."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Spider-Man moaned as he remembered all the times that his enemies had escaped and then teamed up to try and take revenge on him.

"I'm not so sure," Captain America argued. "Zemo…he seemed so certain of what he was doing. Like it was going to put the world right in his hands."

"How," Tony asked.

"He said someone had promised it to him," Steve then revealed.

"Not to mention it seems like a pretty big coincidence that these guys just happened to attack us right when Sora's dealing with an army of Heartless," Yuffie pointed out.

"You think that they're somehow working with the Heartless," Janet asked.

"Well to be fair, Night Hunter has shown that he can command them better than all the rest, including Enchantress, so it is possible," Sora reasoned. "What I want to know is who that other girl was. The one in white that could walk through walls."

"Her name is Ava Starr," Hank revealed to the group in a somber voice. "Her parents were former associates of mine until I caught them…doing something that they shouldn't have been doing. They later swore revenge on me and decided that they would push forward with what they were doing with my work at the time, and it ended badly. I'd thought she had died with her parents until now."

"Ava Starr," Wasp whispered before her eyes went wide in recognition. "Hank, is she…"

"Yeah, the daughter of Elihas. I had a feeling you would remember," Hank informed his partner in crime fighting.

"Kinda hard to forget given what her father did," Janet pointed out with an expression of anger that none of the others had ever seen on her before.

"I don't care what those guys want to do, or how they plan on getting it done. Bring 'em all on. If they have anything to do with what happened to our world, then I plan on making sure that they pay the price for it," Riku promised.

Hearing the kid speak up immediately reminded everyone that he was here, and helped Janet's mood return to normal as she asked, "So Sora, mind finally giving us an official introduction at last?"

"Sure thing," Sora nodded with pride. He then wrapped one arm around Riku's shoulders as he said, "Avengers, this is my best friend, and one of the most obnoxious, egomaniacs on Destiny Islands, Riku Yoake."

"Hey, who're you calling an obnoxious egomaniac," Riku teased in return as he pushed Sora's arm off and grabbed him in a headlock, both of them smiling all the while.

Seeing the two best friends laughing and messing around with each other made all the others break out into a round of laughter as well, each of them happy for how Sora finally found one of his missing best friends, and somehow, they all knew that things were going to start looking up from here. That laughter soon ended though, when a strange circle of sparks suddenly erupted in the middle of the room, making everyone who was still armed and ready for action prepare for another attack. When the circle of sparks fully expanded, it deposited a black haired man with a well-trimmed beard into the room, and judging by his blue robes and red cape, they were all able to get a very wizard-like vibe off the guy.

They were all immediately thinking that this might be another villain, considering that the only magic-users they had encountered so far were either Thor, Sora, or someone from another world, until the man looked to one particular Avenger and smiled. "Sorry for taking so long to respond to your message, Hulk, but I was caught up in another battle against the dread Dormammu and only just returned," the wizard explained.

Nearly everyone was immediately left confused by more than half the things that this stranger just said, and their bewilderment only grew when Hulk grinned a little and asked, "What, did that flame brain actually give you trouble this time, or did you just misplace your lucky cloak?"

Surprisingly, the red cloak that the wizard was wearing actually sprang off the man's shoulders and zipped over to Hulk in order to slap him upside the head. "You know it doesn't like it when you make fun of it," the man grumbled as he waved for the cloak to return to him.

"Uh Hulk, who is this," Tony interrupted right when the big guy was starting to growl at the offending cloth.

"Oh, my apologies. My name is Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. Hulk is an old acquaintance of mine from long ago, and he recently called to inform me that you have a particularly interesting member of your team that could use some tutoring in the way of his magic powers," the wizard finally introduced himself. He then turned to the two youngest boys in the room and finished, "Now then, what was this I heard about a new Keyblade wielder being on this world, and why is it that I've actually found two as opposed to the one that I was informed of?"

* * *

While the heroes were celebrating their victory and having a little meet-and-greet, a bright flash of light had suddenly illuminated Arnim Zola's lab as the Masters of Evil appeared before the scientist, clearly beaten and defeated. "I told you not to underestimate them," Zemo growled to the others.

"And you didn't account for Panther and Hawkeye," Abomination immediately retorted. "Not to mention helmet boy's little distraction didn't keep the Key-brat from interfering like he said it would."

"I said that it would keep him out of the way long enough for us to finish the others, and if in failing that, he would be too tired to really make any difference," Night Hunter corrected with a growl. "Do you really think that any of us could have accounted for a second Keyblade wielder appearing though?"

"Well what about Spider-Man and his new partner? Does someone care to explain how they ended up in the middle of all that, or even when the wall-crawler even got himself a partner," Ghost angrily demanded.

It seemed as though things were going to erupt in a spectacular fashion amongst the Masters of Evil, one that would have likely brought an end to the villainous alliance before it had really had a chance to begin, until Enchantress stood up, straightened her small crown, and softly declared, "Enough. It doesn't matter. None of it does, for it is all a game, and you've played your parts well."

Enchantress then gestured for Night Hunter to follow her, and the two both left the room for the one that Amora had claimed for herself, which Executioner moved to stand guard over not even a second after the door had closed behind them. The daggers that were being stared into their backs from the rest of their "teammates" did not seem to matter too much to either villain, because right now, they had a report that they needed to give to the true mastermind behind all of this. With a simple wave of her hand and mentally recited incantation, Amora called forth a communication spell, and smirked when she saw the person on the other end even as she reported, "The pieces are in place, my lord."

"Excellent, Enchantress. Despite the failings of our allies on other worlds, it is good to know that at least something is going well on Midgard," Loki grinned from his end of the spell. He then looked to Night Hunter and asked, "And what about you, my friend? Were you just as successful?"

"Of course, Loki," Night Hunter replied. "The fools don't suspect a thing."

"Good," Loki grinned in return. "Now, I'd disperse some more Heartless among this world to locate the Keyhole if I were you, but make sure to keep a majority of them in New York for now. Once you've finished, journey to Agrabah. It would seem that our vizier friend could use a little extra assistance in his own endeavors."

Night Hunter nodded in return, and then opened a dark portal of his own so that he could carry out his assignments. Not that he really cared too much for the goals of Loki, Enchantress, or even the vizier that the trickster had mentioned. He was only in this for one thing, and he would get what he desired. It was all a matter of time.

* * *

 ** _AN: Okay, we've got a lot to go over this time around. Firstly though, let's just get right down to what I consider to be a really big thing. If you're having a hard time picturing Sora, Gwen, and Peter's fight against the Heartless, just think of the Battle of 1000 Heartless, mix it together with the Battle of New York from the Avengers movie, add in a Heartless boss and Riku's surprise appearance in Traverse Town in the first Kingdom Hearts game, and there ya go. Simple, yet pretty epic when you think about it, even if we did not go into incredibly extensive detail._**

 ** _Next up is..._**

 ** _Yuffie: Hey, hold on! I thought you said Maleficent wasn't going to appear here!_**

 ** _AN: And she didn't. At least not as herself. In case you weren't paying attention, that was just Enchantress in disguise, so really, Maleficent just made a cameo appearance. This was mainly because I couldn't think of anyone else that she could disguise herself as to get your attention like how she had disguised herself as Whirlwind to get Wasp's._**

 ** _Speaking of the Masters of Evil, yeah, I've added the MCU version of Ghost to their line-up. My reasons, I needed to add at least one other member to the group so that they would have a counter for Yuffie. I already gave the Night Hunter to match Sora, so I needed one more person. Ava Starr AKA Ghost seemed like the perfect fit. And look at that, she's got a bit of history with Ant-Man and Wasp. Just what could that be, you may ask, and why does it seem to cause such a mood change in Janet? More will be revealed on that later, but I will let you all use your imaginations on it for now._**

 ** _The next big thing to mention would have to be that, hooray! Doctor Strange has finally arrived, and he's now able to give Sora those long overdue magic lessons. About time, right? You'd think he was as hard to reach as the Fantastic Four with how long it took him to show up. More on that in the next chapter._**

 ** _And speaking of surprise arrivals, look who's here: Riku! But wait! Riku's not only wielding the Keyblade of Heart, but he's also fighting Night Hunter along with Sora?! What is going on here?! lyokoMARVELanime, what gives?! We all thought that Riku_ was _Night Hunter!...Yeah, I know that's what you're all thinking, but I'm not telling you guys anything about that. I did say earlier on that something would happen that would make you wonder about that, didn't I? Speaking of Night Hunter, I guess you guys have a pretty good idea as to where we'll see him next based on that conversation he and Enchantress had with Loki at the end there, right? Too bad we're not going to hop and carpet and fly just yet. First thing's first. Sora and Riku have both gotta get trained up a little more in their magic abilities, and as you're all about to see, that's all going down next chapter._**

 ** _Riku: Hey, I got a quick question. Where did you get the idea for my last name in this story?_**

 ** _AN: Oh, I used Google Translate to look up Japanese translations for various words, and I ended up going with the one that means Breaking Dawn, or simply dawn. You know, because of Riku's whole road to the dawn thing that he eventually gets later in his journeys through the worlds, and I'm not talking about the Keyblade either._**

 ** _Now, if that's all cleared up, I think it's high time we move Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _Sora and Riku are reunited, and just in time for their first magic lesson under the tutelage of Doctor Strange. Not that such a thing will be easy, given how much of a death trap his own house is. Add in other magical realms and a former mystic of his predecessor out for revenge, and the boys may start thinking they might have bitten off more than they can chew by accepting Strange's offer for magic tutelage. At the very least, there's a chance that they may consider looking for another teacher or at least a different location for the lessons if they survive the nightmares that seem to be plaguing their time in the Sanctum Sanctorum. Things are going to get very magical indeed, in the next thrilling chapter._**

 ** _Yeah, we about to enter the crazy world of Doctor Strange and his magic troubles next time, but for now..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!_**


End file.
